The first snapshot from The Farmer’s Voice has revealed a rural sector that loves its profession but is extremely low on confidence.
The results from 182 farmers across New Zealand are based on a short online survey. They show a sector struggling with low profitability, regulations and mental and physical health.
The farmers surveyed are a mix of gender, age, farm type and location. Asked to describe their overall feeling about being a farmer, 22% said they love it, 43% said it is mostly good and 17% said it is okay.
Only a small percentage had a profoundly negative feeling about being a farmer.
Asked if farming is getting better or worse, 45% said it is getting worse and 16% said it is getting a lot worse. On the opposite end of the spectrum, 3% said it is getting much better and 16% said it is getting marginally better.
Despite loving or liking farming, six out of 10 surveyed believe farming is getting worse.
Those surveyed said profitability and regulations are the biggest issues affecting farming with 70% and 60% of farmers citing these two issues, respectively.
Compliance costs were next at 37%, followed by staffing issues and income and mental health at 20%.
Farmers were also asked how farming affects their health and wellbeing, with roughly one-third saying their confidence in the future of farming is in doubt: 11% said it is a significant problem and 20% said it is a problem.
There was an even spread of 21% of farmers each who said they were experiencing mental health and physical health problems or had a partner who had health problems, and 14% of farmers have family members with health problems.
When split between male and female, the results showed that women are more pessimistic about farming than men, with 57% of the men thinking it is getting worse compared to 67% of the women.
The Farmer’s Voice was created by Farmers Weekly NZ publisher AgriHQ to facilitate better farming conversations.
It recruiting as many farmers to join in as possible so that any farmer can contribute. It will be developed over time with new features and a series of projects that farmers can contribute to.
These will vary from short, simple polls or discussion questions to more involved projects that will require more input.
In Focus Podcast: Full Show | 12 April
