Adapting to rural demographic change: impacts, challenges and opportunities for ageing farmers in Prachin Buri province, Thailand

Most people in rural Thailand still depend on agriculture. The rural areas are undergoing changes in their demographic structures with an increasing older population and a shifting away from the agricultural sector of the younger people. These changes may lead to a decline in agricultural productivity and food security issues for the older farmers and the country. This research aims to examine how older farmers change their farming practices in response to their ageing and what affects these changes. The data were collected through a household survey with 368 farmers in the Prachin Buri province in central Thailand, a main area for agricultural production. Results of estimated multivariable logistic regression models revealed that most farmers intend to make changes to their farming, particularly to reduce their own labour intensity, by transferring farmland to children (41%), giving farmland to others (e.g. selling, leasing out) (28%) or changing crops, employing additional labours and/or applying new technologies (24%). Being of good health and having a potential farm successor were positively associated with the probability of transferring the land to the children. Farmers with a successor were also less likely to give the land to the others. Age was negatively associated with the likelihood of changing crops, employing additional labours and/or applying new technologies. The results indicate that farmers try to keep the land within their family which has implications for policy-making to improve the quality of life of the ageing farmers and to sustain the agricultural sector of Thailand.