AGRICULTURAL NEWS - Studies conducted globally on farmers’ mental health have one thing in common: they show that farmers suffer a higher rate of suicide than any other working group.
While no studies have been conducted in South Africa on suicide and depression among farmers, studies in several other countries all show similar results.
A 2014 Australian study, ‘Suicide and accidental death in Australia’s rural farming communities: A review of the literature’, found that farmers had a suicide rate one-and-a-half times that of the general population.
Another survey, the HUNT study performed in Norway, found that both male and female farmers had higher levels of depression symptoms than those of the general working population.
