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A farm crisis hotline in Nebraska has seen a sharp uptick in mental health-related calls from farmers, worried about losing access to loans and proposed cuts to SNAP funding.

They fear that it would reduce markets where they can sell locally grown products.

Nebraska Farmers' Union President John Hansen also oversees a rural response hotline, which he said has been flooded with calls from farmers in financial distress expressing serious mental health concerns.

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"Every year, there's always somebody in agriculture who is facing very difficult situations, and there's a real need for the kinds of services that we provide," said Hansen, "which is everything from food assistance to bookkeeping assistance, financial management."

Hansen said the Nebraska Rural Response Council, which runs the hotline, helps pay for mental health services for farmers in need.

Hansen figured the crisis hotline would dwindle after it was established to handle calls during the 1980's farm crisis - but said the number of requests has only picked up, especially recently, and jumped from 4,500 calls a year to more than 7,000 now.

"We can tell from the severity of the calls and the number of calls that we are seeing," said Hansen, "for really the third year in a row, cashflows that just don't quite work."

The U.S. Senate just passed a resolution, co-sponsored by U.S. Senator Deb Fischer, R-NE, that declared May 29 Mental Health Awareness in Agriculture Day.

Farm advocates are also calling on Congress to increase funding for mental health resources for producers in the next Farm Bill, which is already 2.5 years behind schedule.