CFA says support needed for farm incomes to ease stress.Ottawa—The federal government has already taken action to help farmers cope with the mental stresses facing them and will work with the provinces and industry to do more, says Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau.Her comments came a few hours after the release of the Commons agriculture committee report on mental health in farming. Its recommendations for action generally stretch well beyond the purview of Agriculture Canada.“We look forward to continuing to work with our partners in government and industry to help increase awareness and fight the stigma associated with mental health in Canadian agriculture,” Bibeau said.The government has mandated Farm Credit Canada to tackle mental health in agriculture and the Agency has already struck a partnership with 4H Canada on the issue, she said. The government has committed $5 billion over 10 years directly to provinces and territories to improve mental health and addiction services.Scott Ross, Assistant Executive Director of the Canadian Federation of Agriculture, lauded several of the report's recommendations but said the organization was disappointed by the lack of recommendations to address financial pressures on farmers.The close links between financial uncertainty and mental health issues received considerable attention in the report, he said. With the challenging trade environment many Canadian farmers currently find themselves in, more action is needed.“Calls for national coordination are important, but this coordination needs to be done in concert with farmers and their associations, academic institutions with expertise in this area,” he said. New financial assistance must address the real pressures facing producers.Jeff Nielsen, Chairman of Grain Growers of Canada, welcomed “the committee's thorough, well-informed study on the urgent need for mental health support in Canada's farming community.“In addition to the attention paid to activities that will directly provide mental health support for farmers, it is heartening to see that the committee looked at long term solutions to address the cause of the problem,” he said. “This includes the need to mitigate the impacts of regulatory change on farming operations, accelerated deployment of rural high-speed internet, and public support by the government for the quality of Canadian agriculture.”Farmers “operate in an incredibly volatile environment,” he said. “They take the brunt of whatever nature and the markets throw sat them so it is not a surprise at all that the farming community has a disproportionate level of mental health challenges.”Ross said CFA supported the committee's call for a national approach to research and prevention activities. “Furthermore, we were pleased to see recognition of the importance of education and awareness raising as critical first steps, noting that mental health supports must be tailored to farmers and coupled with the need to increase rural broadband availability as a critical means of connectivity.”CFA will closely monitor the government response to the report “to ensure these recommendations result in clear actions to improve the accessibility of farmer-centric mental health supports,” he said. “CFA continues to seek avenues through which it can address these issues through its network of member organizations and looks forward to building on the recommendations contained within this report.”Alex Binkley is a freelance journalist and writes for domestic and international publications about agriculture, food and transportation issues. He's also the author of two science fiction novels with more in the works.