COVID-19 Lockdown and Mental Health Consequences among Farming Households in Nigeria

This study examined the mental health consequences of the COVID-19 lockdown among farming households in rural Nigeria.

A structured questionnaire was utilised to elicit information from 585 crop farmers across four States in Nigeria. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression.

The mean age of respondents was 44 years, with an average farming experience of 21 years. The average farm size was found to be 2.4 hectares. About 56% of the respondents were able to identify COVID-19-induced farm business stress. About 70% reported they had experienced income loss due to the COVID-19 lockdown. About 54% of the respondents self-reported COVID-19-induced mental health stress. About 74% reported experiencing mental health effects in the form of headaches, 48% said anxiety, 44% reported worry, and 41% reported depression. Self-reported mental health coping strategies include rest (63%), social gathering (57%), religious gathering (52%), and the use of drugs (40%). Males were 3.7 times more likely to experience COVID-19-induced mental health issues from their farm business than their female counterparts. Single respondents were 2.44 times more likely to experience COVID-19-induced mental health issues from their farm business than their married counterparts. We also documented that households with larger family sizes had lower mental health stress. We also found that respondents with higher incomes had lower mental health stress.

We concluded that most farming households experienced COVID-19-induced mental health stress. Targeted mental health campaigns, support, and intervention are recommended to help farmers address mental health stressors.