How Are Rural Youths’ Agricultural Skills? Empirical Results and Implications in Southwest China

Yuanyuan Zhu,Yukuan Wang,Ming Li,Qin Liu,Bin Fu,Kun Yan

doi:10.3390/agriculture11090874

Abstract

Global agriculture is facing an aging workforce and successor crisis, while the degradation of rural youths’ agricultural skills, which is indeed a concrete manifestation of young agricultural labor loss, has received little attention. Based on data from 1902 questionnaires in rural Southwest China, this study draws on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the degradation of their skills to deepen the insights into the relationship between rural youth and agriculture. We found that rural youth have much lower agricultural skills than rural middle-aged and elderly residents, and their agricultural skills vary depending on gender, age, and occupation. Rural young non-agricultural workers’ large proportion among rural youth and low skills are the main sources of the reduction in rural youths’ skills. According to ordered logistic regression analysis, rural young non-agricultural workers who are older, have less education per person in their household, and have a larger cultivated land size have higher skills. As for rural students, 65.44% of the rural students have no skills, age and family’s agricultural income are significant positive influencing factors of their agricultural skills, and female youth have higher agricultural skills. The results provide references for policymakers to formulate targeted policies to cultivate rural young agricultural successors.

Highlights

Rural revitalization and food security are two important issues globally, both of which call for efficient and sustainable agricultural production [1]
It is clear that the current aging workforce and succession crisis of agriculture is at odds with rural revitalization needs around the world
This study focused on rural youths’ agricultural skills and related factors, aiming to fill the research gap in this specific field and provide insights into young agricultural labor loss and the complexity of changing rural areas, which can assist policymakers and agricultural advisors in developing a deeper understanding of the process so as to solve the succession crisis

Summary

Introduction

Rural revitalization and food security are two important issues globally, both of which call for efficient and sustainable agricultural production [1]. Global agriculture is currently facing an aging labor force and successor crisis [4,5]. In 2013, about 30% of European farms were managed by a farmer aged 65 years or older, and in some countries this figure was even higher [6]. Developing countries such as China [7], India [1], Brazil [8], and Tanzania [9] are facing the problem of aging agricultural labor forces to varying degrees. How to retain rural youths’ involvement in agriculture has become a worldwide concern of policymakers and scholars [6,10]

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion