Measuring farmers' well‐being: Influence of farm‐level factors on satisfaction with work and quality of life

Abstract

To achieve social sustainability, there is a need to incorporate social metrics of farmers’ well‐being into agricultural monitoring systems. We contribute to the operationalisation of the measurement of farmers’ well‐being by determining how farm‐level factors influence farmers’ satisfaction with their work and quality of life. Using a data sample of 1099 farms that are part of the Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) in nine European countries, we tested a set of hypotheses related to work satisfaction and life quality perception based on a structural equation model. Satisfaction with on‐farm work has a significant and substantial influence on satisfaction with quality of life. Farm‐level aspects, such as working time, age of assets, financial situation of the farm and community engagement, significantly influenced farmers’ satisfaction with farming, but their joint effect explained less than one‐fifth of the satisfaction. The results suggest that agricultural information systems intended to monitor and compare sustainability progress on farms would benefit from the integration of a metric measuring social concerns from the farmers’ point of view.

Putting social into agricultural sustainability: Integrating assessments of quality of life and wellbeing into farm sustainability indicators

“…A range of studies has sought to identify factors impacting the wellbeing of farmers in Europe. Sabillón et al (2022) utilised the FADN framework to determine the influence of different farm-level factors on farmer's QOL across member states, finding that financial viability, free time and social interaction had a positive effect on farmer's satisfaction with their work, while those engaged in longer working hours were less satisfied with their occupation. Brennan et al (2020) identified a number of thematic areas of concern for farmer's social sustainability in Ireland.…”

“…In relation to the latter, Scown and Nicholas (2020) identified a particular need for an indicator to assess the health and wellbeing of farmers. Sabillón et al (2022) echoed this sentiment, citing the need to integrate metrics measuring farmer wellbeing in agricultural information systems to enhance policy evaluation.…”

“…That being said, historically there has been an unbalanced approach towards research and policy development across these pillars in regard to agricultural sustainability (Brennan et al., 2020; Mills et al., 2021). Whilst agriculture within the EU has experienced something of an ‘indicator explosion’ in regard to economic and environmental sustainability, indicators of the social dimension are often absent in agricultural information systems (Lebacq et al., 2013; Sabillón et al., 2022; Wojewódzka‐Wiewiórska et al., 2020).…”

“…Over the past two decades, however, social scientific concepts have arisen in the context of sustainability research (Boström, 2012; Brennan et al., 2020; Colantonio, 2007; Janker et al., 2019). Indeed, recent contributions focusing on agriculture have sought to expand the assessment of social sustainability by utilising the monitoring framework of the EU Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN)1 (Brennan et al., 2021; Herrera et al., 2016; Sabillón et al., 2022; Wojewódzka‐Wiewiórska et al., 2020).…”

“…Sabillón et al. (2022) echoed this sentiment, citing the need to integrate metrics measuring farmer wellbeing in agricultural information systems to enhance policy evaluation.…”