According to a report, one-third of UK farmers may feel depressed

According to a new poll on agricultural health, more than a third of people in the UK farming industry may be depressed. Anxiety levels were especially high among women farmers. Financial strain, bodily pain, the Covid-19 pandemic, laws, and bad weather are all sources of stress.

The findings come as pig farmers express their displeasure at having to put their animals to death owing to a labour shortage at abattoirs.

A variety of causes, including Brexit and Covid, are being blamed for the shortage of personnel needed to slaughter and process the pigs.

The University of Exeter and the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI) conducted a survey of 15,000 farmers in the United Kingdom, which is thought to be the largest of its kind. The RABI survey was conducted before the UK’s abattoir labour shortage became a problem. Across all fields of farming, expert pig farmers reported the largest number of stress causes and rates of possible depression. People working in cereals and general agriculture, on the other hand, reported fewer sources of stress, and 70% were unlikely to be depressed.

Regulation, compliance, and inspection were the most common sources of stress, followed by the epidemic. Extreme weather is also creating severe concern, with 44% of individuals stating that it is a major problem.

Floods and dry spells have wreaked havoc on farmers in parts of the UK, particularly Yorkshire and the East Midlands, in recent years. Isolation and long hours are also factors in bad health, and younger people reported feeling more lonely than the general population.

According to the data, many farmers are unable to take time off for a vacation or recreation, which is a frequent method for improving mental health. Almost a third of those polled indicated they rarely, if ever, leave the farm. As per the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), about 472,000 people work in farming in the UK.