Sustaining the Farmer to Sustain the Farm: Stress Management Education for Farmer Resilience and Wellbeing

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Commodities

Practices

• Education and Training: decision support system, extension, farmer to farmer, mentoring, networking, participatory research, youth education
• Sustainable Communities: analysis of personal/family life, community services, quality of life, social capital, social networks

Agricultural sustainability is impossible without sustaining farmers. Farmers experience high stress levels and have among the highest suicide rates of any occupation. Beginning farmers report particularly high levels of emotional distress—a recent Georgia survey showed 9% of first-generation farmers reported suicidal ideation daily.

The purpose of this project is to strengthen the resilience and emotional wellbeing of farmers by providing education on causal factors for stress and stress management skills, so as to position farmers and their future generations for long-term success and stability. Our overarching project message is that without a healthy farmer the farm is not sustainable, to take care of family and farm requires caring for yourself, and while you cannot control many stressors in farming, you can control how stress affects your physical and emotional health.

The project will teach skills needed to combat the physical, cognitive, and emotional impacts of stress on farmers. It will address SARE’s pillars of sustainability by providing farmers with skills they need to manage stress, improve their physical and emotional health, and thus improve their quality of life. Resilience against stress and strong physical and emotional health will in turn promote excellent decision-making to ensure farmers learn new skills needed for sustainable farming and make the most efficient use of nonrenewable resources. All of this will maximize economic viability of the farm.

Our project objectives are to create an inventory of needed content and delivery methods for farmer stress management training as identified by partners and farmers; develop relevant training materials on farmer stress management, including tailored content for underrepresented groups; build capacity in stress management skills in farmers through training and resource dissemination; and engage in ongoing evaluation to assess impact and modify content as needed

Our curriculum topics will include: What is stress?  Why is stress important to talk about? Physical/cognitive/emotional effects of stress; Effective stress management skills; Building a network and supporting fellow farmers; Available resources; and Unique stressors faced by underrepresented farmers, and resources available to support them. We will intentionally support a range of underserved farmers by developing content addressing the unique stressors experienced women, Black farmers, and farmers with disabilities, and target this content to trainings and sites where underserved groups are present. 

Research indicates farmers value independence and stoicism and only discuss stress with trusted others.  Farmers’ time is precious, and willingness to attend non-essential programming is low; training farmers in stress management cannot be stand-alone programming. We will therefore infuse this content throughout presentations within existing trusted trainings and programs such as Extension Journeyman/Beginning Farmer and other agricultural programs, UGA agricultural and sustainability courses, FVSU classes and Extension programming, commodity conferences, and FSA offices.

We will evaluate our developed materials through pilot testing, and engage in both process and outcome evaluations of the impact of our trainings and material dissemination. Through our work we will improve the stress management skills of farmers, and promote their ongoing emotional and physical health. By sustaining farmers, we will support sustainable agricultural systems throughout Georgia.

This project will build resiliency and stress management skills in farmers to ensure their long-term sustainability and that of their farms.

Project Objectives:

1. Create an inventory of needed content and delivery methods for farmer stress management training as identified by partners and farmers, including content needed to address unique needs of underrepresented farmers;
2. Develop relevant, meaningful training materials and resources on farmer stress management, including tailored content for underrepresented groups, grounded in needs and preferences identified in #1 above;
3. Build capacity in stress management skills in farmers in Georgia through training and resource dissemination, with a focus on beginning and underrepresented farmers and farmers evolving to more sustainable practices;
4. Engage in ongoing evaluation to assess impact and modify content as needed.