No Young Farmers, No Future: Agriculture’s Generational Test

Globally, 44 percent of working youth depend on agrifood systems for employment, while 46 percent of young people live in rural areas, according to FAO. However, many continue to face barriers to land, finance, knowledge, skills, technology, decent work and entrepreneurship.

The future of agriculture may depend less on persuading young people to become farmers than on making rural life economically and socially worth choosing. This is the deeper challenge behind the global push for generational renewal in farming: younger people need access not only to land and finance, but also to housing, healthcare, education, childcare, digital connectivity and viable careers.

FAO Director-General QU Dongyu put that wider agenda at the centre of the High-Level Ministerial Conference on Generational Renewal in Rural Areas hosted by Croatia. His message was clear: agriculture cannot solve its ageing problem through farm policy alone, because the decision to stay in rural areas is shaped by the quality of life available beyond the farm gate.

If rural regions cannot offer younger people credible prospects for income, family life, services and entrepreneurship, efforts to modernise agriculture may struggle to produce the workforce and leadership needed for the decades ahead.

The real succession crisis begins beyond the farm

Globally, 44 percent of working youth depend on agrifood systems for employment, while 46 percent of young people live in rural areas, according to FAO. However, many continue to face barriers to land, finance, knowledge, skills, technology, decent work and entrepreneurship.

Young people are already deeply connected to agrifood economies, but participation alone does not guarantee that agriculture offers a secure or attractive future. A large rural youth population can coexist with weak career prospects, underemployment and limited pathways into farm ownership.

Generational renewal is about more than replacing older farmers with younger ones. It is about whether rural economies can retain talent at all. When housing is unaffordable, broadband unreliable, healthcare distant or childcare scarce, even a viable agricultural business may not be enough to persuade a younger household to remain.

Many of the tools needed to address the problem sit outside agriculture ministries. Rural transport, digital infrastructure, housing, education, social services and local enterprise policy all influence whether farming communities can regenerate themselves over time.

Land and finance still decide who gets to enter agriculture

The broader rural agenda does not reduce the importance of agriculture's traditional barriers. For young farmers, access to land and capital remains one of the clearest dividing lines between interest in agriculture and the ability to build a viable business.

Farm entry often requires substantial investment before meaningful returns are generated. Land, machinery, inputs and technology can all demand capital at a stage when younger farmers may have limited collateral or credit history, making it difficult to compete with established producers or larger agricultural businesses.

Land access can be just as restrictive. Where ownership is concentrated, inheritance is delayed or land markets are expensive, generational turnover may occur slowly even when younger people want to farm. Succession therefore becomes not only a family matter but a structural issue affecting the future shape of agricultural production.

This is where FAO's emphasis on a systemic approach becomes particularly relevant. Agricultural policy, finance, rural development and investment cannot operate as disconnected tracks if the objective is to create a genuine pathway for a new generation of producers.

Technology can modernise farming, but it cannot replace opportunity

Science, mechanisation and digital tools are frequently presented as the route to making agriculture more productive and attractive to younger workers. At the 71st World Ploughing Championship, Qu emphasised the value of combining generations of farming knowledge with science, technology and innovation.

Modern agriculture increasingly rewards technical knowledge alongside practical experience. Sustainable mechanisation can reduce physical drudgery, improve productivity and offer solutions adapted to local conditions, potentially making farming more appealing as a profession built around management, data and innovation rather than manual labour alone.

However, technological progress can also deepen divides if access is uneven. Digital systems are of limited use where connectivity is weak, mechanisation offers little benefit to farmers who cannot finance equipment, and advanced tools may bypass producers without the training or infrastructure needed to use them effectively.

Generational renewal cannot be achieved simply by making agriculture more technologically sophisticated. The more important question is who can participate in that transition, under what conditions, and whether younger producers have the resources to turn innovation into viable businesses.

There is also a knowledge-transfer challenge. Agriculture depends heavily on accumulated local experience, and large-scale retirement among older farmers could erode that knowledge unless institutions and communities create ways for expertise to pass between generations while incorporating new technologies and methods.

Rural renewal will be judged by whether young people choose to stay

The most important idea in the generational renewal debate is that younger people should not be expected to remain in agriculture because previous generations did. Their decision will depend on whether rural communities can compete with other places and sectors for their skills, ambition and investment.

Qu described generational renewal as a question of choice: creating conditions in which young people can choose agriculture, choose rural life and choose to invest their knowledge and energy in agrifood systems. FAO has linked that objective to stronger family farming, science and innovation, investment, rural development and greater youth participation in decision-making.

This puts pressure on governments to look beyond recruitment programmes and young-farmer grants. A rural economy cannot regenerate itself if people entering agriculture still face poor services, limited credit, weak infrastructure and few opportunities for their families outside the farm.

Climate pressures make the challenge more demanding. Qu also pointed to drought-related difficulties in the region and stressed the importance of innovation and science-based approaches in keeping agrifood systems sustainable for future generations.

The next generation of farmers will be expected to do more than maintain existing production. They will have to navigate climate stress, adopt new technologies, improve productivity and contribute to increasingly sustainable food systems while operating in rural economies that may already be struggling with demographic decline. This is why the future of agriculture cannot be secured simply by making farming more attractive. It depends on making rural life viable enough that younger people see staying, investing and building families there as a rational choice rather than a sacrifice.