Global interest in farmers' mental health

25 years ago the first Nordic conference on the working environment in agriculture took place at SLU in Alnarp. Since then, the conference has been alternating between the Nordic countries. This year the conference was held in Sweden. Senior professor Peter Lundqvist, from SLU, led the work on this year's conference, that focused on farmers' mental health. He welcomed everyone to inspiring and fruitful days.

During the opening session, Anders Drottja, from the Ministry of Rural Affairs and Infrastructure, presented the Swedish food strategy, which aims to increase Swedish food production. He also referred to the Strategy for the Working Environment in the Agricultural and Horticultural Industry and described that the EU's vision for agriculture from February 2025 also mentions the importance of good working conditions within agriculture.

The Swedish Federation of Green Employers are responsible for the four-year national programme Lantlyftet, which will implement the Swedish Board of Agriculture's working environment strategy 2024-2028. SLU is one of Lantlyftet's partners and, in addition to a report on farmers' mental health, will contribute to training for supervisors to the peer learning meetings that are part of the programme.

Henrik Gudmundsson from The Federation of Swedish Farmers – LRF in Skåne, described that support for Swedish farmers was better a few decades ago and that today there is a need for increased support. He described that older male farmers have poorer mental health compared to other professional groups and that farmers often wait too long to seek help.

Peter Burman from the Swedish Work Environment Authority explained that Agriculture is one of the sectors with the highest number of fatal workplace accidents. Burman also mentioned that mental ill health in agriculture is less researched compared to the physical work environment. He also described that there is a great need to reach out to farmers with information on how systematic proactive work environment work can be conducted. The Swedish Work Environment Authority is also one of the actors in the Lantlyftet initiative.

Nordic country reports

A recurring feature during the NMAOH conferences is reporting from the Nordic countries. Helle Birk Domino from GLS-A, a Danish employer organization for companies in the green areas, mentioned a danish report that analysed several workplace accidents and made three recommendations to reduce the problems:

1. Create a stronger safety culture in agriculture.

2. Increase machine safety in agriculture.

3. Increase the level of competence among employees and managers regarding the safe use of machines.

To prevent work-related accidents, a training project in machinery safety is underway in Denmark between 2025–2027. Danish farmers are also demanding more focus on mental health and they want the opportunity to talk to people who know what it means to be a farmer.

In Norway, Halle Arnes from the Norwegian Agricultural Advisory Service, NLR, described the broad collaboration between different actors in Norway as an important success factor for the work on health and safety in agriculture. Farmers are offered health checks, crisis support and consultations and a “Farmer’s Network” an initiative to prevent mental illness.

Cecilia Lindahl, from the research institute RISE, presented Sweden’s work. She highlighted that livestock is decreasing in Sweden while crop production is increasing. Difficulties in attracting young people to agriculture were also mentioned. 39 percent of Swedish farmers are over 65 years old, and the average age is around 50 years old. The number of work accidents is higher among women in agriculture, which may be due to the fact that women work with animals to a greater extent. Sick leave in agriculture is mainly due to musculoskeletal disorders and mental health. The material “Are you safe” produced by Prevent was highlighted.

In Finland, too, the number of farms with both livestock and crop production is decreasing, while the number of farms with only crop production is increasing. Janne Karttunnen from the Finnish Institute for Work Efficiency TTS described that farmers who farm more than five hectares of land or earn more than 4,605 euros from their work per year are eligible for social insurance, pensions, etc. There are also occupational health care and access to replacement work, where full-time farmers are entitled to 26 days of replacement work per year.

David Meredith from Teagasc in Ireland spoke about the EU-funded multi-stakeholder project Safe Habitus, which aims to strengthen knowledge and innovation systems for health and safety in agriculture and support the EU's work for social sustainability in agriculture.

Just a Farmer

After dinner, the Swedish launch of the Australian film Just a farmer took place. After the film, director and leading actor Leila Mc Dougall spoke about the process of making the film together with her husband, without previous experience of making films.The film is about a a farmer comitting suicide and the young widow who has to deal with her childrens feelings, the reactions of the community as well as her alcoholic father-in-law while trying to take care of the failing farm. The film focuses on mental health challenges in rural Australia.Just a farmer has received several awards, including the Audience Award at the Saint-Tropez Antipodes Film Festival (2024) and the Iris Global Health Film Festival (2024). It also won awards for Best Film, Best Cinematography and Best Supporting Actress at the 2024 International Film Festival of Australia (IFFA).

During the last two days of the conference, many research presentations were held in several subject areas. Peter Lundqvist, Lisa Blix Germundsson, Carola Häggström, Eva Göransson and Catharina Alwall Svennefelt from SLU were some of those who presented abstracts and posters during the conference.

The last day ended with a study visit to Hallongården, a raspberry farm and Ängavallen, an organic farm.