糖心Vlog

<糖心Vlog>Project Dates

October 2024 - March 2026

<糖心Vlog>Funder

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)

<糖心Vlog>Project Summary

The overarching aim of this study is to generate new substantive knowledge about farming families in England and Wales, identify distinct sub-groups regarding farmers, farm households and farm business characteristics, and subsequently identify patterns in policy engagement and health vulnerabilities.

This aim will be achieved by utilising the Administrative Data | Agricultural Research Collection (AD|ARC) datasets for England and Wales, with additional linkages for Wales to include individual health records.

This project aims to explore the following research questions:

• What are the socio-demographic, economic and business characteristics of farm households?
• To what extent are farm household characteristics specific to the farming community or reflective of rural communities in general?
• What distinct farming household subgroups can be identified, based on farmer, farm household, and farm business characteristics? What kind of farming-household typology, emerges from this subgroup analysis?
• Does farmer engagement with voluntary farm support schemes vary according to sub-group?
• Do the health characteristics of farmers and farming households vary according to sub-groups?

Methodology

Using the AD|ARC dataset I will use a mostly descriptive approach to describe farm households in England and Wales. This will be in terms of characteristics for:

• farmers (e.g. farmer age, gender, ethnicity, education)
• farm households (e.g. household members age, gender, ethnicity, education, employment, individual income, total household income, household composition, number who work on and off the farm)
• farm businesses (e.g. number of farmers and non-farmers, employed workers, agricultural training, farm activity, area of land, total subsidy payment).

Through statistical analysis and consultation with farmers, farming organisations, and policymakers, I will group farming households based on farmer, farm household and farm business characteristics to develop a new farming-household typology. Using this new typology, I will identify patterns around the take up of different agricultural support schemes and highlight gaps in the health and wellbeing of farming households. Answering questions such as:

• What is the relationship between farming-household types and the prevalence of long-term health problems or disability?
• Is disproportionately low turn-over within sub-groups predictive of lower general health?
• Is recorded mental health more common within certain subgroups?

<糖心Vlog>Outputs

A

A link to the

<糖心Vlog>Research Team

Dr Claire Hargreaves

Dr Paul Caskie (Mentor)

Professor Karen Broadhurst (Mentor)

<糖心Vlog>External Collaborators

Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute

<糖心Vlog>Contact

For further information, contact Claire Hargreaves (c.hargreaves4@lancaster.ac.uk).