Kicker: Support being wrapped up with business advice
By Abi Kay
MOVING away from the Common Agricultural Policy offers an opportunity to improve farmers mental health, according to Defra Minister Lord Benyon.
Late last year, a major survey of the agricultural community carried out by the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI) revealed more than one-third (36 per cent) of farmers were probably or possibly depressed.
According to the research, two of the 10 major sources of stress for farmers were regulation and compliance/inspection.
But giving evidence to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee on rural mental health last week, Lord Benyon suggested enforcement of the new Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme would improve the situation because it would be much less austere.
There is an inspection regime around it [the scheme] which treats it in a similar way as you and I are treated with our tax returns, which is to believe we are honest until proved otherwise, he said.
As the systems bed in, I think that will be appreciated by farmers who have for decades had a very top-down, rather soulless system of enforcement.
Jonathan Baker, deputy director of the future farming and countryside programme at Defra, said it was mission critical to get farmers to engage with the new scheme and that meant making it simpler.
I think this stuff will make a big difference, he said.
We know from talking to farmers that mental health [issues] are around inspections and monitoring for compliance, so we have taken out some of those.
When our field force goes out to talk to farmers, first, we give them a steer that they are there to advise rather than go along and penalise.
Small things make a big difference.
Mr Baker went on to tell the committee mental health support was being wrapped up with free business advice as part of the Farm Resilience Programme.
We got feedback from farmers that they would be much more likely to engage if it was framed in that way, whereas a standalone well-being or mental health offer would be ignored, he said.
We needed this way into the door of many of the farmhouses and that is what we are seeing works quite well at the moment.
