The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) announced today an investment of nearly $25 million for 50 grants supporting
Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN) State Department of
Agriculture (SDA) projects.
“NIFA’s Farm and Ranch Stress Assistance Network connects farmers, ranchers, and others in agriculture-related occupations to stress assistance programs,” said NIFA Director Dr. Carrie Castille. “Creating and expanding a network to assist farmers and ranchers in times of stress can increase behavioral health awareness, literacy, and positive outcomes for agricultural producers, workers and their families.”
Funded projects must
initiate, expand, or sustain programs that provide professional
agricultural behavioral health counseling and referral for other forms of
assistance as necessary through farm telephone helplines and websites;
training programs and workshops; support groups; and outreach services and
activities.
Examples of FY2021 Farm and Ranch
Stress Assistance Network Program-SDA projects include:
- Colorado Department of
Agriculture’s project, Colorado Farmer and Rancher Mental Health Support, will expand the vitality and psychosocial wellbeing of Colorado's agricultural workers with community-based efforts to manage the increasing stress on farmers and ranchers. ($500,000)
- Georgia Department of
Agriculture’s project, Georgia Farmer Healthy Mindset, will take a multifaceted approach to address stress and mental health outreach and awareness, programming, capacity building, and farmer financial literacy. ($500,000)
- Maine Department of
Agriculture’s project supports Maine farmers through a fellowship program with the Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust and community-led food and medicine projects across tribal communities with the Eastern Woodlands Rematriation Collective. ($500,000)
- Minnesota Department of
Agriculture’s Bend, Don’t Break project will engage agency, nonprofit, and educational partners in helping farmers and others in agriculture cope with adversity, addressing suicide, farm transition/succession, legal problems, family relationships and youth stress. ($500,000)
- Washington State Department
of Agriculture will collaborate with
Washington Department of Health and Washington State University
Extension to create two programs to address suicide prevention and
behavioral health. ($500,000)
- Executive Office of the
Government of the U.S. Virgin Islands will
create outreach activities, seminars, training, workshops, and
resources to allow local farmers to develop a Farm and Stress Assistance
Network locally; and collaborate with the FRSAN-Southern Region to
respond to the stress experienced by agricultural producers in the
U.S. Virgin Islands through prevention, intervention, and future
mitigation efforts. ($500,000)
Background:
Long before the pandemic
caused an increase in stress around the world, stress-related mental health
was already a rising concern across farm communities coast to coast.
USDA-NIFA introduced a competitive grants program, the Farm and Ranch
Stress Assistance Network (FRSAN), reauthorized by the 2018 Farm Bill,
which supports projects that provide stress assistance for people in
farming, ranching, and other agriculture-related occupations. FRSAN offers
a conduit to improving behavioral health awareness, literacy, and more
favorable outcomes for them and their families. In fiscal year2020, NIFA
awarded $28.7 million to four regional entities contributing
to FRSAN, to ensure vulnerable agricultural producers and their families
have more options for high-quality, affordable help close to home.
NIFA invests in and advances agricultural research, education, and Extension across the nation to make transformative discoveries that solve societal challenges. NIFA supports initiatives that ensure the long-term viability of agriculture and applies an integrated approach to ensure that groundbreaking discoveries in agriculture-related sciences and technologies reach the people who can put them into practice. In fiscal year 2020, NIFA’s total investment was $1.95 billion.
Visit our website: www.nifa.usda.gov; Twitter: @USDA_NIFA; LinkedIn: USDA-NIFA. To learn more about NIFA’s impact on agricultural science (searchable by state or keyword), visit www.nifa.usda.gov/impacts.
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