A Study to Assess Occupational Stress among Farmers Residing in a Selected Rural Area of Rahata Taluka, Ahmednagar District

Abstract

Background: During the recent years, farming has gone through lot of changes and it also found to be one of the potential areas for stress. Along with irregularities in weather and financial issues; greater use of automation technology, more use of organic production, decrease price for agricultural products and new complicated legislations have made the life of farmers more stressful one. In this study an attempt is made to find out the factors which are causing stress and made the life of farming community more miserable. Materials and Methods : A descriptive design with cross-sectional survey approach was used to collect the data. A modified version of farm stress inventory created by James & Lily Walker was used to assess the occupational stress. The samples were selected by purposive sampling technique. The samples comprised of 60 farmers of a selected village of Rahata taluka Ahmednagar District Maharashtra. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for data analysis. Results: The findings of the study revealed that majority of the participants had occupational stress in each area of assessment (Financial stress, farming hassles, weather stress, work overload and other people as stressor) Conclusion: study concluded that farming hassles and financial stress was common and more significant type of stress among most of participant participants.