Well-Being in Agriculture – New Aspects

Vásáry, Viktória – Bálint, Csaba – Hamza, Eszter – Rácz, Katalin

Keywords: subjective well-being, mental well-being, health, trust, Q10, Q19

The well-being of farmers and those working in agriculture receives relatively little attention in Hungarian public discourse and scientific discourses. The aim of the article is to examine the well-being of farmers and, within that, to evaluate their self-esteem related to health, mental well-being, personal relationships and trust. In addition to scientific sources, we analysed various statistical data from Eurostat and the Hungarian central Statistical Office (cSO). We used data from the Microcensus 2016 subjective well-being survey on mental well-being, health and trust in institutions, preliminary data from the 2020 Agricultural census and the results of the FLINT project that surveyed FADN member farms, and conducted semi-structured interviews.
As a result, the most important findings of the study can be stated as follows. It is more physically and mentally strenuous to work in the agricultural sector than in other sectors, which can be partly explained by the greater stress on farmers. Farmers are more positive about the content of their activities, the quality of their living environment and their current job, and the most dissatisfied with their own and their household’s income and with the amount of time they spend on doing things they enjoy. Those working in agriculture have a slightly more negative opinion on most of the factors influencing living conditions than the average of the entire population, but their opinion on their health status and working conditions is more favourable than the average. Their satisfaction with their own income reflects the average opinion of the entire population.
Among the factors that have a positive effect on their well-being the safe and calm family background, recreation and leisure, as well as the existence of personal relationships and collaborations are to be highlighted. Factors that negatively affect their well-being include political public mood, unpredictable economic environment, labour shortages, excessive administration, isolation and loneliness, feelings of uncertainty about the future, lack of time to relax, rest, monotonous work, lack of recognition and stress caused by the market, livelihood and weather risks. Regarding trust in people, it is low enough in the general population, but slightly even lower among those living in agriculture. The tendency is similar in the case of institutional trust. Apparently, the range of factors that influence well-being unfavourably is quite wide, but for the time being, there have not been sector-specific solutions formulated. These could, however, improve the health, mental well-being and self-esteem of farmers, that could have favourable society-level and macroeconomic outcomes as well.

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