Deluzio Celebrates Federal Funding for Local Business to Increase Safety, Productivity on Western Pennsylvania Farms

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, Congressman Chris Deluzio announced a $644,705 federal grant from the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) for VISIMO, a data science, software design, and artificial intelligence company located in Carnegie, PA.

With funding from this Small Business Agricultural Innovations grant, VISIMO will use the federal funds to continue developing a risk management machine learning tool to help increase safety on local farms. The model will assess and mitigate agricultural hazards in real-time, which could help small to midsize farms increase safety, productivity, and efficiency. 

“The farmland across our region is a fundamental and important industry—but also one that can be dangerous for workers,” said Rep. Deluzio. “I’m proud to deliver these federal funds to VISIMO, which is working to better understand and reduce farming safety risks. I remain hopeful that this prototype will lead to stronger and safer farms in Western Pennsylvania.” 

A region with a long agricultural history, the 17th Congressional District of Pennsylvania is home to hundreds of farms. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, farming is one of the most dangerous jobs, with an occupational death rate of 20 out of 100,000 workers per year in the agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting industries.

Currently, a comprehensive data set to capture the threat landscape in farm settings does not exist. Collecting that comprehensive data, as VISIMO’s machine learning model promises to do, would allow the public, workers, employers, advocates, and regulators to accurately understand the safety and productivity issues facing farms and suggest steps to mitigate any problems.  

More information on the NIFA grant announcement is available here. 

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