UC Research Finds Canterbury Farmers Stressed
UC Research Finds Canterbury Farmers
Stressed
May 1,
2013
A University of Canterbury (UC)
researcher looking at organisational resilience and physical
impacts of the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes on farms has found
stress to be one of the greatest challenges.
UC PhD
natural hazard and risk assessment researcher Zach Whitman
say farmers have cited the causes of stress to be increased
workloads, disrupted sleep, staff welfare concerns and
exposure to aftershocks.
``Our surveys have also
reported that it took some time for the effects to take
hold. From October 2010 to June 2012, the reports from
farmers citing stress as the greatest challenge doubled. We
believe the increase in stress is likely a product of
exposure to on-going aftershocks and the challenges of
recovering from the disaster.
``We surveyed 54
farming organisations, asking farmers to describe how the
business was disrupted, what resources were helpful in
mitigating the effects of the impacts, who they relied on
for help, how the bottom line has been affected and what was
the single greatest challenge they faced.
``We
wanted to research the impact on farms because we were
unsure how earthquakes affected farming organisations. No
one has looked at this topic before in a developed nation.
We know much more about how cities are affected and some of
the lessons learned from Christchurch seem to hold true in
the rural areas. But a lot of the challenges are unique to
the rural areas or the farming
industries.
``Farmers are worried about staff
well-being and the rebuild process. Worrying about the
well-being of staff, which in many cases means worrying
about the well-being of family members, is inherently
stressful and the rebuild process is added workload that
deals with a lot of phone calls, planning and logistics.
``In most cases, the farm's main income-generating
assets, such as pasture and animals, were not disrupted.
Production and income remained relatively unaffected. As a
result, there was not much financial legacy of the
earthquake-related impacts by 2012.
``Comparatively, these effects contrast to what
can occur during a major drought event where decreases in
feed production forces de-stocking during non-optimal times.
This can have a legacy for months to years. This scenario
has been forecast by many commentators following the recent
drought throughout New Zealand.
``In mitigating and
recovering from the effects of the earthquakes, we have
found that farming organisations often utilised their
informal networks for both organisational and psychosocial
support. The use of community members, neighbours, friends
and family has helped the farms and their rural communities
recover.
``Overall, our results suggest that
psychosocial impacts in rural communities are important to
monitor – and undertake research on – after
disasters,’’ says Whitman, whose research was supervised
by Dr Tom
Wilson.
ENDS