Understanding the resilience of NSW farmers: Findings from the 2015 Regional Wellbeing Survey Jacki Schirmer & Ivan Hanigan University of Canberra Jacki.schirmer@canberra.edu.au

The importance of resilience Farming is unpredictable – at the best of times Changing weather, markets, pest & disease, technology, consumer preferences… Resilient farmers can cope successfully with challenges, and take advantage of opportunities Resilience farmers are more successful in their business – and happier and healthier in their lives

What is resilience? The ability of a person, household or community to successfully adapt to adversity and to capitalise on opportunities A process in which individuals adapt and move forward in a positive direction despite experiencing significant adversity A process, not a ‘state’ Depends on: Number and type of changes person is having to cope with How these changes impact a person’s life Not just about on-farm – what is happening off-farm just as important

This project NSW DPI Rural Resilience Program Importance of monitoring resilience & factors influencing resilience of NSW farmers Commissioned University of Canberra Identify best practice approaches for measuring and monitoring NSW farmer resilience Profile resilience using data from 2015 Regional Wellbeing Survey Not all indicators able to be analysed using available data & not in all regions

Collaborative, accessible In-depth data 13,000 participants annually Annual – track change Many topics Local to national scalability Collaborative, accessible Many partner organisations Results made publicly available www.regionalwellbeing.org.au Focus on rural & regional Australia Analysis of different regions Sample cities through to remote areas Greater insight into regional issues The Regional Wellbeing Survey

Understanding and measuring resilience - Exposure - Resilience resources - Resilience outcomes

Exposure What types of challenges are farmers experiencing? How many at the same time? (cumulative exposure) On-farm – climate, market, pest, technology … Off-farm – economic downturn, loss of services/schools, illness, family stress…

Resilience resources Do you have access to resources you can draw on to help you cope with and adapt to change? Resilience resources together provide you with ‘adaptive capacity’

Resilience outcomes How many & which types of farmers are achieving positive outcomes that indicate positive resilience processes? Farmer wellbeing Farm financial performance

NSW farmers in 2015 – what did we find? We measured a number of resilience indicators using 2015 Regional Wellbeing Survey data Produced a partial picture of resilience Identified gaps in data Produced recommendations for addressing these

Exposure to climate related challenges in the last 5 years Drought (severe rainfall deficiency, 12+ months) Cold snaps (e.g. unseasonal frosts) Heatwave Bushfire Severe storms Floods Cumulative score 0 to 6

Exposure to climate related challenges in the last 5 years 0-1 challenges: 23% NSW farmers 2-3 challenges: 39% 4+ challenges: 38% More challenges: Dairy, mixed beef-crop, fruit/nut Farmers aged 40-54 Western & North West Less challenges: Rice growers, sheep graziers South East We didn’t look at exposure to market change, pest/disease outbreak, etc – future measures of exposure should include these

Exposure to climate related challenges in the last 5 years

Resilience outcomes: Farmer wellbeing Subjective wellbeing measures examine a person’s overall quality of life We use validated survey measures shown to have strong correlation with mental health outcomes and life expectancy

Wellbeing varied more by age & enterprise size than by region – farmer age

Wellbeing varied more by age & enterprise size than by region – farm enterprise size

Adaptive capacity depends on resilience resources you can access in your household, on the farm, and in your community Individual adaptive capacity (Household/farm-scale resilience resources) Financial resource: farm and household finances Human resources: health and ‘self- efficacy’ Natural resources: availability of key natural resources on the farm e.g. soil health, water storage Social resources: access to support from family and friends Community adaptive capacity (Community resilience resources) Financial resources: a healthy local economy providing job opportunities Human resources: strong local leadership Institutional resources: local government and local organisations that respond to the needs of farmers Physical resources: availability of infrastructure and services such as good quality roads, access to health services

Adaptive capacity (access to resilience resources) of NSW farmers, by region, 2015

Community adaptive capacity, by Local Land Services region

Adaptive capacity varies by age Farmers aged 65+ report best access to community, social and natural resources Younger farmers report better access to human resources (health and skills) Farmers aged 40-54 report poorest access to 6 of 8 resources (particularly social, community resources)

Community scale resilience resources Financial (blue), Human (green), Physical (brown), Institutional (pink) Western poorer access to all four. Central Tablelands higher access to most.

Supporting personal resilience Which resilience resources best predict high farmer wellbeing? The resilience resources that contributed most to farmer wellbeing were (i) human resources – self-efficacy, (ii) social resources, (iii) institutional resources, (iv) human resources – health, and (v) financial resources.

Supporting personal resilience What actions are important? To increase the personal resilience of farmers, our results suggest it is particularly critical to help farmers build and maintain self-efficacy (skills, knowledge, and capability) and a wide range of social networks. While supporting farmer health and farm finances in difficult times is also important, building self-efficacy and social resources provides resources farmers can draw on to help maintain other resilience resources in difficult times, including farm finances and health.

Supporting business resilience What helps support positive farm business performance? Having good access to financial resources, self-efficacy and social resources, and living in a safe community, predict positive business performance What about specific interventions to improve farm planning and management processes?

Supporting business resilience Forward planning for risks, monitoring outcomes and updating plans, and discussing farm planning with others all matter

Monitoring and evaluation What is needed going forward Rapid assessment of emerging ‘exposure’ We developed recommendations Proposal to trial these and further develop Monitor access to resilience resources This changes more slowly Monitor regularly to identify change We have suggested multiple indicators Intervention Design interventions to build farmer self-efficacy, social connections, health and financial resources More research into monitoring effectiveness of existing interventions, and applying learnings to designing future interventions