The Indian Farming Community and Their Health Concerns for a Sustainable Agriculture

1. Introduction

The mental-health disorders burdens on health of farmers as well as productivity in agriculture have been underestimated throughout the world that can result in serious consequences not only at an individual level, but also for the entire agricultural sectors hindering for sustainable developments. The mental-health disorders strongly influence the farmers’ performance, illness-rates, absenteeism in work-places, farm-related injuries and accidents. The farming-community usually experience stresses when they face with some demands requiring them for a change in some-manner. In order to fight against poverty, both good-health and productive-agriculture are much more essential. Agriculture has been facing with many challenges in view of natural-resource constraints, agricultural-pests, extreme weather-conditions, globalization, environmental-degradation, and problems with proper maintenance of production in conflict-situations. In the past studies, the musculoskeletal disorders and the ergonomic aspects in the agricultural sectors of Odisha (India) has been analyzed (Mishra and Satapathy, 2019a; 2019b). However, the farmers with poor-health and mental-illnesses are less liable to work properly reducing the overall productivity as well as income in context to agriculture. As a result, there is an urgent requirement for taking initiative for both the agricultural in addition to health sectors to work closely together with the aim of developing innovative-solutions to solve the mental-health disorders related issues. Thus, an attempt was made in this study for exploring the mental-health disorders of the farming-community in the state of Odisha in India for undertaking possible intervention strategies by the government and competent authorities. In order to carry out this work, the research questions that were followed for possible mitigation measures that can lead to a sustainable agriculture constituted the following:

• 1.

  What level of comfortableness does the farmers feel or encounters during performing the field activities?

• 2.

  What are the factors that affect the mental well-being of farming-community?

• 3.

  What could be the perceived effects of mental-health disorders of farmers?

• 4.

  How mental-disorders of farming-community influence agriculture which can be reduced for achieving a sustainable agriculture?