Ken Imhoff sees a troubling trend unfolding in Saskatchewan’s farm community.
Imhoff manages the Saskatchewan farm stress line, a toll-free service that producers can call when their worries seem overwhelming.
During the first three months of this year, the farm stress line had 430 calls from people in the farm community worried about personal or financial issues. The calls in January were up 30 percent from a year earlier. February calls jumped 39 percent when compared to the same month in 1998. The farm stress line did not have a final tally of the number of calls received in April. There were 157 calls in May, a number almost double what it was two years ago.
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“People are finding it pretty tough out there,” said Imhoff, noting that more than 40 percent of calls to the farm stress line were about debt and finances.
Several factors
Imhoff said calls to the farm stress line showed a increasing sense of pessimism toward agriculture as early as last fall. That was triggered, he said, by things such as poor commodity prices and rail transportation costs, which were no longer subsidized by the Crow Benefit subsidy.
The pessimism carried over to this spring, when the outlook for grain prices continued grim.
Some of the calls to the stress line include concerns about the Agricultural Income Disaster Assistance program. Callers wonder whether it’s worth filling the forms out. Some had filled the forms out only to discover they will not receive aid from the program.
“It’s a small example of the larger issue producers are facing right now.”
The hardships are pushing some farmers to the edge of their emotional endurance. Imhoff said the farm stress line receives an average of one call per week from people with suicidal thoughts.
“The more severe the situation is, the more that becomes an option in people’s minds – a very tragic option.
“We always hope they would call rather than take such drastic measures.”
The number for the Saskatchewan farm stress line is 800-667-4442.
The service can provide information, short-term counselling and support, and referrals. It is meant for farm families and others involved with agriculture who are encountering social, emotional or financial difficulties.
