RABI has announced the appointment of the University of Exeter to conduct a once in a generation survey into the wellbeing of farmers.

After months in development, the research project, which launches early in 2021, will seek to better understand mental and physical wellbeing issues facing people in agriculture.

The research will be the largest survey ever undertaken to gain an understanding directly from farming people of the stresses they face and the impacts on their wellbeing of these challenges.

RABI has worked with a number of key stakeholders to help develop the survey including the NFU, NFU Cymru, Defra, the Welsh Government, the Worshipful Company of Farmers, the National Rural Mental Health Forum and the Prince’s Countryside Fund.

With RABI hoping to achieve 26,000 responses to the survey across England and Wales, partners across the sector will be engaged to help promote the survey as  RABI hopes to reach as many farming people as possible.

Alicia Chivers, RABI’s chief executive, said: “We know the farming community is facing changing and increasingly complex challenges – this research is fundamental to ensuring we really understand how these pressures impact on our people, allowing us to continue to develop really effective tools and support to enhance their wellbeing.

“Working in partnership with the Centre for Rural Research based at Exeter University and key stakeholders across our sector, we want to gather the most comprehensive, reliable information directly from farming people.

“The survey results will not only inform RABI’s service offering in the future, but as they will be widely published, will additionally provide the agricultural sector with an overview of the issues that the current generation of farming people are facing. We must work collectively now to ensure the right support is available for all who need it.”