Fuel Protests and Mental Health: Challenges in Farming

Introduction

When tractors and trucks began slowing traffic across the country,  a lot of the focus was on disruption. But what sat behind it wasn’t just frustration about fuel. It was pressure, and not just financial pressure either.

Because in Irish farming, the numbers point to something much deeper.

Farming is already a high-pressure occupation

Farming has long been one of the most demanding jobs in Ireland, but the pressure is not just physical.

Recent research found that 23.4% of farmers surveyed were considered at risk of suicide. The same work found that over half were experiencing moderate to extremely severe depression, while almost 40% were experiencing moderate to extremely severe anxiety and stress.

Those are not small numbers, they suggest a sector already carrying a significant mental load before any new shock arrives.

So when something like a sharp rise in fuel costs hits, it is not landing on a stable system, it is landing on one already under strain.

Burnout and fatigue are already part of the picture

There is also the issue of exhaustion. Irish research shows that around 1 in 4 farmers experience burnout, while 50% report sleep problems. That matters because fatigue affects everything else. It reduces concentration, makes decision-making harder, and lowers the ability to deal with setbacks. When financial or operational pressure rises, there is less capacity to absorb it.

The structure of farming makes stress harder to manage

Farming is different from many other jobs because it is often isolated, continuous, and tied directly to home life.

There is rarely a clear separation between work and personal time. Problems on the farm do not stay at the yard gate,  they come into the house as well.

Many farmers say they would seek help if they were struggling, but a large share also report not knowing how to access local mental health services. That means pressure can build for too long before support is reached.

The fuel protests did not create the pressure — they exposed it

The recent protests did not cause the underlying problem. What they did was make it visible. Fuel is one of the few inputs that affects every part of farming at once:

• Machinery.
• Transport.
• Feed delivery.
• Fertiliser spreading.

When diesel rises sharply, it creates immediate financial pressure. And financial pressure, uncertainty and lack of control are all closely tied to poor mental wellbeing in farming.

That is why the protests struck such a chord, They were not just about diesel. They were about the cumulative strain many people were already carrying.

Why ongoing conflict could make things worse

What makes the situation more concerning is that it may not settle quickly.

As conflict in the Middle East continues, there is a real risk that fuel and fertiliser markets remain volatile. For farming, that matters because both are core inputs and both are heavily exposed to global supply routes and energy markets.

If disruption continues, farmers may be facing:

• Prolonged fuel volatility.
• Tighter fertiliser availability.
• Continued pressure on margins.
• ore uncertainty around seasonal planning

And uncertainty is often harder to manage than one-off cost increases. A high cost is one problem, not knowing what the cost will be next month is another.

That kind of ongoing unpredictability can deepen stress, especially in a sector already dealing with long hours, isolation and financial exposure.

There is also a safety issue here

This is not only about wellbeing.

Over the period from 2015 to 2024, farming accounted for 40% of all fatal workplace incidents in Ireland, despite making up a much smaller share of the workforce.

That matters because stress, fatigue and long working hours do not just affect mood. They affect concentration, judgement and safety.

So when pressure builds in farming, the consequences are not only emotional or financial, they can also be physical.

The statistic that says the most

One figure stands out more than most:

• Over 82% of farmers surveyed said they personally knew someone who had died by suicide.

That says a great deal about how close this issue is to the sector. It is not distant, it is not abstract. For many people, it is personal.

What support is available

The pressure is real, but support is there.

Farmers can access:

• Teagasc, which provides wellbeing information, guidance and signposting through its advisory network.
• HSE mental health supports, including urgent-help pathways and local services.
• Samaritans, available 24 hours a day on 116 123.
• Pieta, which offers a 24/7 crisis helpline, text support and access to therapy.
• Embrace FARM, which supports farm families affected by sudden death or serious injury.
• IFA’s confidential debt support helpline, which is especially relevant where financial stress is a major part of the strain.

The challenge is often not whether support exists, but whether people feel able to use it early enough.

Conclusion

The fuel protests were not just about traffic and diesel. They were a visible sign of something that is often carried quietly in farming: pressure, uncertainty and strain. The sector was already under stress, the figures make that clear.

And if global instability keeps pushing volatility in fuel and fertiliser, that pressure may deepen further. That is why this cannot be treated as just an input-cost story. It is also a mental health story,  and increasingly, a rural resilience story too.

*By Anne Hayden MSc., Founder, The Informed Farmer Consultancy.