Suicides of farmers: "The family farm reinforces the feeling of isolation"

In France, a farmer commits suicide every two days.

So much so that the government presented, Tuesday, November 23, an action plan to prevent ill-being and support farmers in difficulty.

How to explain such uneasiness in this profession?

Why do we come to such a loss of meaning?

Nadia Butakova, work psychologist and coordinator of the Agri'écoute line, discusses her discussions with suffering farmers.

Read alsoSuicides among farmers: the government seeks to stop the black series

LE FIGARO - Is the economic factor at the heart of farmers' suicide?

Nadia BUTAKOVA -

The farmers we listen to have to reconcile a drop in income, an increase in costs and new environmental constraints.

Financial difficulties, often related to economic regulations and harvest issues, prevent farmers from hiring other hands to help them.

They often run their farms alone, at arm's length.

In addition to this workload, there is a mountain of administrative requirements in which they are not always trained.

Most evoke great loneliness.

Is this isolation geographic?

Yes, but not only.

It is most often a social isolation.

The farmer works alone, and more and more.

He gradually loses the habit of taking care of himself and having social activities.

I frequently hear patients say that they haven't taken time off for several years.

One told me one day:

.

Farmers feel trapped by exploitation, which is slowly erasing the rest of the world.

They withdraw into themselves, sometimes even forgetting to go to the doctor when they are sick.

For those who are alone, celibacy becomes a sort of fate.

Isn't the family a support?

Often, the family lives on the farm, and the couple work there in pairs.

The borders are blurred.

The difficulties of work impinge on family life, and vice versa.

This increases the anxiety of the farmer who does not know if he will be able to feed his family, when work pursues him home.

Not to mention the weight that a family farm established for several generations can represent.

That is to say ?

I see a lot of patients for whom taking over the family farm was not an option.

They have never questioned their vocation, and understand that in the end they do not find themselves in this agricultural activity.

They are stuck in a conflict of loyalty between the loss of meaning they face and the duty to take up the family torch.

There is often an intergenerational cohabitation which accentuates this muffled pressure of family duty, and makes the feeling of failure all the more shameful.

Many of the farmers interviewed find it difficult to express their difficulties, because it is a duty to succeed in perpetuating the family heritage, which excludes any possibility of abandonment or reconversion.

Do they suffer from the image of the profession in the population?

Patients take great pride in their activity, which sometimes contrasts with the reproaches they may hear.

The time that farmers devote to their profession contrasts with the criticisms they may receive, especially on their commitment.

This further reinforces their sense of isolation.