The Ageing Crisis Threatening Farming in Ethiopia: An Analysis of Youth Involvement in Agriculture

Abstract

This study examined youth labor force participation in agriculture and factors impeding effective participation in Ethiopia using the 2011-2018 data from the Living Standards Measurement Survey-Integrated Survey of Agriculture (LSMS-ISA). The analytical tools included both descriptive statistics and econometric analysis. Summary statistics show that the average age of the respondents was 47 years, thus they are not at an economically active age. This is an upward trend of 52 years in 2018 compared to 44 years in 2011. The ordinary least square (OLS) regression result indicated that for every 1 unit increase in the independent variable (time), there will be a 1.01 increase in the dependent variable (farm age). The result showed that the increase in time affected age of the farming positively and significantly. The evidence suggested farming population in Ethiopia is growing older and reduced involvement of youth (14.4%). The results also revealed low participation of youth in agriculture activities which increases youth unemployment. In turn, the total dependency ratio in the population equals 102.7. This high dependency ratio means that the ‘dependents’ in society are more reliant on a smaller number of working-aged people, which suggests that for every 1027 dependents, there are roughly 1000 working-age people providing them food through farming. The review result showed youth participation in Ethiopian agriculture is influenced by limited access to land, low attitude on agriculture (attitudinal problems), inadequate access to financial services, problems of rural life, and backwardness of agricultural tools. The study suggests that efforts to shape future work in Ethiopian agriculture should include among other things, access to land and provision of credit facilities. The study pointed out that the efforts to shape the future of agricultural work in Ethiopia should ensure the availability of land and credit.