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

Yuanyuan Zhu, Yukuan Wang, Bin Fu, Qin Liu, Ming Li and Kun Yan
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Yuanyuan Zhu: Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
Yukuan Wang: Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
Bin Fu: Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
Qin Liu: Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
Ming Li: Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China
Kun Yan: Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu 610041, China

Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 9, 1-17

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.

Keywords: agriculture; rural youth; succession crisis; rural revitalization; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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