Agriculture: Why young generation do not interest in agriculture?- Hesti W.

Sanusi /
17211141023

As agrarian country most of Indonesian people work as a farmer. They who work
as farmer are mostly people who live in rural area and dominated by older generation.
Young generation now prefer to work at office or in industrial sector than in agricultural
sector. So, the reason why young generation don’t want to be a farmer are: they prefer work
at office or industrial sector, agriculture requires a lot of money, lack of experience and
knowledge about farming among young people.

According to the dictionary agrarian is something related to agriculture or farming

methods. The word Agrarian bring the meaning the agrarian sector or the majority of the
population in a country works in agricultural sector, whereas agrarian means that a situation
where the population in a country are mostly works as farmers and agriculture become the
main income sector in that country. As we all know that our country is an agrarian country
so most people in Indonesia work in agriculture sector. Agrarian country is a country which
the economy in that country depend on the agricultural sector. The other example of
agrarian country is Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Brazil and so on. In Indonesia, one of
the provinces that is the centre of agriculture is East Java.

While agrarian is a situation where the population in a country work in agricultural

sector, agriculture is art and science of cultivating the soil, growing crops and raising
livestock. According to Mubyarto :

Agriculture in broadest meaning is people in agriculture sector, while in narrow

meaning agriculture is related to plantation, farm, silviculture, fisheries.

(Mubyarto,1995)

According to Mosher agriculture is a distinctive form of production, which is based

on the process of growing plants and animals, where farmers manage and care for the
 growth of plants and animals in a farming business. (Mosher,1966). Then. As result
agriculture is something that related in raising or growing plantation and animals.

In Indonesia in recent year, agriculture sector has significant increase some

commodity, such as rice, corn, onions and other. For example, rice production, during
2014-2017 the production increase 15,1%. The diagram bellow shows the production
during 2015-2017. In 2015 rice production was 75,3 million ton, then in 2016 was 79,3
million ton and in 2017 the production up to 81,3 million ton. (kementrian pertanian).

Rice Production Data in 2014-2017

85
in millon

80

75

70
2015 2016 2017
Axis Title

rice production

From the data above shows that agricultural sector in Indonesia has increased in some
commodity production.

Although the level of welfare of farmers in Indonesia in recent years has increased,
Indonesia still has a problem: young generation does not interest to farm. The data from Badan
Pusat Statistic shows that from 26,2 million farmers in Indonesia are dominated by older
generation in 45-54 years old. There are any reason why youngest does not interest in farm:

1. Young generation prefer work in industrial fields

Industrial sector still be the main sector in Indonesian economy and mostly
youngest choose this sector to depend their lives. They choose this sector because of the
guarantee they will get income each month. Farmers are considered not a financial
guarantee in the midst of the rising prices of necessities. While working in industrial sector
such as in Bekasi, Tanggerang or Depok still be the attractive choice than work as a farmer
in rural area. People flock to leave the characteristic of agrarian because there is n decent
 in livelihood in it. (tirto.id) This reason also supports by the growth of industrial sector in
2017 reach 17,76%, It is the higher than the other sector, while the agriculture sector only
reaches 13,96%. (kementrian perindustrian). Industrial sector offers many vacancies with
many benefits such as stable income, assurance, and so on. Agriculture does not give any
benefits, that’s why youngest are leaving agriculture sector.

2. Agriculture requires a lot of money

Instead of giving any benefits, agriculture requires a lot of fund. Farmer need a lot
of money to care their crops, for example in farming farmer need fund to cultivate,
fertilization, and control up to capital in harvest period. To cultivate a crops, for example
a hectare of rice, they spend about 12 million rupiah.

3. Lack of experience
Because of the lack of knowledge about agriculture, young people are reluctant to
enter this sector. They also have no interest in learning about agriculture. Because of
agriculture are dominated by older generation, which is youngest’s parent, young
generation are not aware with the fields of agriculture, most of them do not know how to
cultivate a crops or to raise a farm. Young generation now days are aware with Technology
rather than the theories to cultivate a crop.

After talking about the reason why young generation are not interested in
agriculture, I think there is a way to attract young generation in agriculture. According to
Food and Agriculture Organization, the ways to engage youth in agriculture are :

1. Improve agriculture’s image

Farming is rarely portrayed in the media as a young person’s game and can be seen
as outdated, unprofitable and hard work. Greater awareness of the benefits of agriculture
as a career needs to be built amongst young people, in particular opportunities for greater
market engagement, innovation and farming as a business. The media, ICT and social
 media can all be used to help better agriculture’s image across a broad audience and allow
for sharing of information and experiences between young people and young farmers.
2. Strengthen higher education in agriculture
Relatively few students choose to study agriculture, perhaps in part because the quality
of agricultural training is mixed. Taught materials need to be linked to advances in
technology, facilitate innovation and have greater relevance to a diverse and evolving
agricultural sector, with a focus on agribusiness and entrepreneurship. Beyond technical
skills, building capacity for management, decision-making, communication and leadership
should also be central to higher education. Reforms to agricultural tertiary education should
be designed for young people and as such the process requires their direct engagement.
3. Make agriculture more profitable
This is an easy statement to make but a difficult one to realize. Low yields and market
failures in Africa reduce the potential of agriculture to be profitable and to provide people
with a chance of escaping poverty and improving their quality of life. Making agriculture
profitable requires that the costs of farming and doing business are reduced while at the same
time productivity increases. Although large-scale commercial farming springs to mind, this is
not necessarily the case, and small farms can be highly productive with low labour costs.
Of course all of these solutions come with their own hurdles: access to education and
technologies, rural development, land rights etc. But as one article states “Africa has the
highest number of youth in the whole world, and some of the most fertile soils – the two
combined could be a force to promote agricultural development!“ Foregoing engaging youth
in agriculture and the potential for transformation this could bring because of the complexities
of modernising agriculture would be a huge opportunity lost.

We live in agrarian country. Indonesia is one of the biggest agrarian country in the world. So, as
young generation we need to promote and develop agricultural sector in our country. If agricultural
has succeed we can decrease our reduce food import such as rice, we can also increase the state
revenue among agricultural sector.