Talking futures: a relational, future-oriented framework for supporting farmer and extensionist wellbeing in a dvisory practice

Purpose: The wellbeing of farming communities and the extensionists (AEEs) supporting them is fundamental to agricultural sustainability. AEEs provide technical expertise and pastoral support. Extending AEE roles into specialist health provision presents risk. This paper proposes a framework for integrating wellbeing awareness into advisory practice without role expansion.Design/Methodology/Approach: Drawing on a literature review spanning agriculture, behavioural science, and future-oriented goal formation, the paper presents the conceptual Talking Futures framework. Integrating Emotional and Social Competence (ESC) and Psychological Safety (PS) as relational preconditions, with Context Development (CD) conversations as the connecting mechanism.Findings: Wellbeing can be reflected in the readiness to engage in future-oriented planning. Chronic physiological depletion can compromise the cognitive capacity required for planning. The quality of a farmer’s engagement with CD conversations provides a non-clinical indicator.Practical implications: The framework offers AEEs a non-clinical, relationally grounded approach supporting recognition of strain, strengthening knowledge transfer and enhancing adaptive capacity.Theoretical implications: Talking Futures reframes wellbeing as a functional capacity underpinning advisory engagement, integrating physiological, psychological and relational mechanisms.Originality/Value: This paper addresses an intersection between farmer physiological depletion, cognitive capacity, and advisory engagement, while maintaining professional boundaries and positioning wellbeing as foundational to farm business resilience.