Agriculture accounts for nearly a third of workplace deaths in Ireland despite only employing 6.5 per cent of the workforce.
A total of 19 people died and many more were seriously injured in farming accidents last year.
A major international seminar on farm safety in UCD heard today that the high level of farm deaths was a problem in Denmark, Sweden, the United States and other countries around the world.
The conference was told most agricultural accidents happen in intensive farming areas. Long working hours during the harvest season, a higher use of dangerous machinery and more animal herding are among the factors that contributed to the increase.
Tillage farmers in Kildare, Meath and Wicklow as well as dairy farmers in the Golden Vale in Munster are particularly at risk.
Teagasc, the farm advisory service, is now carrying out detailed case studies in these risk areas, which were identified in its most recent National Farm Survey.
In the survey, 73 per cent of farmers said they found farm work dangerous; 75 per cent considered their own farm safe.
UCD researcher Ms Anne Finnegan, who carried out the survey, said it was not accurate to write off farmers as negligent in safety procedures. "The farmer is the manager on the farm and he has the last say," she said. "It's difficult for farmers to be self critical and also to identify the hazards because they're so familiar with the environment."
She said farmers were swopping between a variety of tasks every day such as moving livestock and then repairing a tractor. She added they were under increasing work pressure due to a decline in income.
The ageing profile of Ireland's 130,000 farmers has also contributed to the rise in accidents. Last year, a 74-year-old farmer died when his tractor caught fire and he was trapped in the cab.
An 89-year-old woman was killed on a farm when a newly arrived bull charged at her, and a 66-year-old farmer died when he fell through the perspex roof of the shed he was painting.