Mental health of agricultural workers

Approximate read time: 10 minutes

On 17 September 2026 the House of Lords is scheduled to consider the following question for short debate:

The Lord Bishop of Hereford to ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the impact of economic uncertainty, regulatory change, and environmental pressures on the mental health of those working in agriculture.

1. Key points

• Surveys suggest the mental health of farmers is worse than that of the overall population.
• Reported causes of poor mental health among farmers vary by source. However, repeated themes include bad or unpredictable weather and climate, financial pressures, isolation and negative portrayals of farming in the media.
• The government has said it is improving mental health services in rural areas.

2. What is the state of mental health of agricultural workers?

Surveys suggest that farmers and other agricultural workers have relatively poor mental health and low levels of wellbeing. However, there is a lack of official, detailed data on mental health in rural areas and farming communities.^[1].

Research conducted in 2025 by the Farm Safety Foundation, based on a survey of 765 farmers, found overall wellbeing in the farming community was lower than the UK general population.^[2] The survey found differences in wellbeing trends between different age groups: that of 18- to 40-year-olds declined between 2021 and 2024 then improved slightly in 2025, whereas that of farmers 41 years and older was broadly steady until a decline between 2024 and 2025.

A Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution (RABI) survey of over 15,000 farmers in the UK conducted in 2020/21 found that 36% had mental health scores that were “sufficiently low to cause concern”: 21% were “probably depressed”, and 15% were “possibly depressed”.^[3] In addition, the survey found 47% of the farming community was experiencing some form of anxiety. A substantial minority were experiencing moderate anxiety (12%) or severe anxiety (6%). Mental health was worse for the farming community than for the UK population overall for those of working age (between 16 and 65), although it should be noted that estimates for the UK population as a whole were taken from before the Covid-19 pandemic.^[4]

The survey found that poor mental health was more prevalent in some farming sectors than others. People working in the specialist pigs sector, ‘less favoured areas’ grazing livestock, dairy, and lowland grazing livestock were more likely to experience depression and anxiety, while those working in cereals, general cropping and horticulture were less likely to be experiencing these conditions.^[5]

There has been no recent analysis of suicide statistics by occupation, but Office for National Statistics data for 2011 to 2015 showed that skilled agricultural workers, and those in related trades, had a higher-than-average rate of suicide for men (the numbers for women were too small to be reliable).^[6] The standardised mortality ratio for this group was second only to ‘elementary trades and related occupations’ (a category that includes jobs such as postal workers, hotel porters, cleaners and catering assistants), and was similar to skilled construction and building trades.

3. What are the causes of poor mental health among agricultural workers?

Sources vary in what they find as the most important sources of stress, and therefore drivers of poor mental health, for agricultural workers.

The RABI survey of over 15,000 farmers found “regulation, compliance and inspection”, the Covid-19 pandemic and bad/unpredictable weather were the top three things farmers named as causing them stress in its 2020/21 survey.^[7]

Table 1. Causes of stress named by farmers in 2020/21 (percentage of farmers citing as a source of stress)

A smaller, more recent study (published in 2025) grouped causes of stress for UK farmers into three themes: “professional-based helplessness”, “attack on farmer purpose” and “professional and unsustainable isolation”.^[8] Professional-based helplessness included both financial elements (such as buyers setting prices) and an inability to counter the media’s negative portrayal of farmers. The second theme, attack on farmer purpose, is also largely related to the media’s portrayal of farmers and their work. The third theme, isolation, relates to how the solitary nature of the work can stop farmers from connecting with others, and cultural barriers can prevent farmers expressing vulnerabilities.

Witnesses to a House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee inquiry on rural mental health in 2023 also emphasised the detrimental impact on farmers of not feeling valued by the public.^[9] The committee heard that many farmers think society is generally negative towards farming, “appreciating neither food production nor land management”. The committee also heard that lone working and having few opportunities to take time off was a further challenge for farmers.^[10]

Long working hours can contribute to poor mental health for farmers. The Farm Safety Foundation found that in 2024 UK farmers worked an average of 60 hours per week, and 44% of those aged between 41 and 60 worked more than 81 hours per week.^[11] The charity also found that those with shorter working hours demonstrated higher levels of mental wellbeing.^[12]

A systematic review of research on causes of poor mental health for farmers found the four most-cited causes were pesticide exposure, financial difficulties, climate variabilities/drought and poor physical health/past injuries.^[13] This review included studies from around the world, though most were from developed countries and eight percent were from the UK.

While some factors contributing to poor mental health, such as isolation, are inherent to the profession and perennial, others are location-specific and related to recent developments. The Farm Safety Foundation highlights what it argues are particular sources of stress for UK farmers in 2026:^[14]

• inheritance tax changes and succession planning
• extreme weather and climate change
• labour shortages, particularly for seasonal workers
• rising costs and falling margins
• policy uncertainty

4. What can the government do to improve the wellbeing of agricultural workers?

4.1 House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee report

In 2023, the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee made recommendations to the then government about how it could improve rural mental health. It said the “long list of risks and stressors affecting the farming community” provided “real opportunities for substantial gains […] with significant levers for change in the government’s hands”.^[15] The committee’s recommendations included:

• The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) should play a role in revising the national suicide prevention strategy.
• Defra should establish a working group on agricultural and veterinary occupations to improve suicide prevention for these groups and to develop a more joined-up public health approach to suicide prevention.
• Defra and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) should work together on a new joint rural mental health policy, find ways to improve mental health provision in rural areas and improve data and information on rural mental health services.
• The NHS should focus on providing rural communities with good access to services in terms of location, including by mobile or outreach services.
• Defra and DHSC should work with charities with expertise in rural communities to identify measures and targets to improve mental health outcomes for farmers and vets, and should work with these groups to train NHS workers in their specific needs.

The committee also highlighted that regulatory change, particularly the replacement of EU subsidies with the Environmental Land Management programme, had been a source of stress for the farming community.^[16] It noted that Defra has provided access to the ‘Farm resilience fund’ to help farmers struggling financially during the transition, but recommended mental health support should be delivered by the fund alongside business support. It also said people in organisations that work with farmers should be trained in mental health first aid.

The committee acknowledged it would be difficult for the government to address barriers to farmers taking time off, but recommended the government explore options to establish or expand models such as cooperative or insurance cover systems for agricultural workers, to allow them to take leave and to take time off sick.

4.2 Government response to the House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee report

In its response to the committee, the then government said that the new suicide prevention strategy, published in September 2023 and covering the period up to 2028, included tackling known risk factors including those affecting people in rural areas.^[17] The then government also highlighted funding for voluntary and community groups to support specific communities.

The then government rejected the committee’s suggestion for a joint Defra/DHSC team and pointed to other work it was doing to improve health and wellbeing in rural areas.^[18] The then government also said it did not intend to establish a new workstream with the NHS but that the DHSC was progressing other ways of improving support for agricultural workers.^[19]

4.3 Future of rural England report

In July 2026 the government under Sir Keir Starmer set out actions it would take to improve rural health and wellbeing in the ‘Future of rural England report’. Measures relevant to agricultural workers included:^[20]

• expanding access to digital mental health tools, including virtual therapies
• pilots of community-based mental health centres delivering 24/7 services
• recruiting more mental health professionals
• funding the ‘Tackling loneliness hub’, an online forum for people working on loneliness

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Photo by Siddhant Kumar on Unsplash