OPINION: Canadian farmers under more stress than farmers elsewhere, and female farmers suffer most

In 2019, two published scientific papers looked at the mental health of Canadian farmers. The studies reported the results of surveys that had been done in 2015-2016. Farmers were invited to fill in survey forms online to help determine if they felt stress, anxiety or depression, and if they were likely to be successfully coping with stress.

Farming can be a solitary profession and the business of farming is subject to a large number of external forces that are largely beyond a farmer’s control. Some of the major ones would be the costs of inputs such as fuel, seed, fertilizer, feed supplies and the sale price of commodities. And then of course there are weather and international trade issues that are really beyond an individual’s control. It would not be too surprising then that some farmers would be feeling stress — the researchers argued that we really do not know how much stress and how widespread the stress might be amongst farmers.

The researchers recruited over 1,000 farmers (who had to be able to complete the survey in English) in all agricultural sectors from across the country. The farmers who participated were around 46 years old and just about 70 % were male. Almost 80 % were married or in a committed relationship. Around 25 % reported that they had had previous mental illness and 9 % were taking medications for mental illness when they completed the surveys.

The surveys themselves were standard tools used to evaluate stress, anxiety, depression and resilience (the ability to cope with stress). The same tools have been used to study individuals and other groups of people.
Canadian farmers had higher stress scores than the general population of the U.S. and male grain farmers in Ohio (there are no good comparable data from Canada). Female Canadian farmers reported higher stress than men. Females reported higher scores for anxiety and depression too. For both males and females, Canadian farmers’ scores were higher than for farmers in France, Norway and the U.K.

Research shows that stress affects the mental health of individuals and impacts their family and friends. Stress also increases the risk of farm injury and of depression, as well as of health conditions like heart disease. Anxiety and depression also affect productivity.

The ability to cope with stress is called “resilience.” The researchers noted that there are strategies to increase resilience. Some strategies include having interests and activities other than farming, making time to spend with family, friends and others in the community and making time for yourself.

Canadian farmers from the survey scored lower on resilience than other study groups. This suggests that there is a very real need to make sure that Canadian farmers have access to resources that can help them deal with stress.

Female farmers scored less favourably in all of the categories than male farmers did. Similar results were seen in mental health studies of female farmers in other countries. It demonstrates that it is important to make sure that any resources offered to assist farmers with mental health issues include strategies that are targeted at women as well as men.

The 2019 published studies were the first to describe mental health amongst Canadian farmers. There is no way to know from a single study how mental health has changed over the short or long term. There is also no way to know if farmers in all commodity groups suffer stress to the same degree. This offers an opportunity to review the mental health services that are available to both male and female farmers.