Peak industry body, Growcom, said the benefits include:

• Higher worker productivity;
• Decreased workers’ compensation and disability claims;
• Reduced absenteeism;
• Greater ability to attract and retain workers to the farm.

The Live Well Farm Well Planning Guide is the work of Diabetes Queensland, Growcom and the Queensland Government and follows a pilot project with banana farms on the Cassowary Coast over the past two years.

The pilot project focused on practical ways rural workplaces could achieve simple health improvements to reduce the risk of chronic disease.

The farms developed programs that fit farming schedules and helped farm workers and managers get more active and eat healthily drawing from programmes such as:

• Eat It - Diabetes Queensland’s healthy eating program;
• 10,000 Steps program using pedometers to monitor daily physical activity;
• Quitline programme;
• Policy and environmental changes at the workplace;
• Get Healthy Information and Coaching Service.

“The new interactive guide aims to extend the work of this project beyond the participating banana farms to all horticulture farms, regardless of region or commodity grown,” said Growcom CEO, Pat Hannan. “I urge growers to consider introducing a Live Well Farm Well program to their farm. We spend a lot of time at work. From a management perspective, a workplace health and wellbeing program makes good sense in terms of productivity and profitability. Research shows that for every dollar a business invests in employee wellness, $4 in increased productivity is returned. It is vitally important that we look after our health and the health of our workers the way we look after our crops.”

Diabetes Queensland CEO, Michelle Trute, said that workplace health and well being programs were designed to help workers to improve their wellbeing and support them in adopting healthier lifestyles. It was urgent that these programs be considered seriously by all businesses. “Queensland is the leading state in Australia for overweight and obesity with 65 per cent of adults in that category. Consequently, we also have among the highest rates of chronic disease such as diabetes type 2 and heart disease.”

“Managing these diseases can have huge impacts on worker productivity and engagement. One in three Australians will be diagnosed with diabetes in their lifetime, that’s one in three employees, so it makes sense to keep the Australian workforce healthy. A preventive program goes a long way towards raising awareness of these challenges and developing some solutions before they affect the business’ bottom-line.”

Diabetes Queensland aims to raise awareness about how to prevent type 2 diabetes through managing risk factors such as obesity and overweight. As the peak body for Queensland horticulture, Growcom encourages more people to increase their daily consumption of fruit and vegetables as part of the solution in tackling obesity. Currently less than 10 per cent of people are eating the right number of serves of vegetables (five) each day.

The Live Well Farm Well Planning Guide can be accessed at: www.growcom.com.au/live-well-farm-well

The project is a Queensland Government Healthier. Happier. Workplaces initiative.