Populating Aging in Rural India: Implication for Agriculture and Smallholder Farmers
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Populating Aging in Rural India: Implication for Agriculture and Smallholder Farmers Vladimir Milovanovic 1 & Lubos Smutka 1 Received: 17 October 2018 / Accepted: 18 March 2019/ # Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract The research attempts to document the effects of rural aging in India by examining theassociation between aging andagriculture using rural households as a target group. Key agricultural activitiesperformed by farmers, self-reported andobserved physical intensity of those activities, and their distribution across age, amongother aspects, are explored indetail. Semi-structured questionnaire and fitness trackers, along with the standarddescriptive statistics and regressionanalyses were used to collect and analyze data within Lakhisarai district. The resultsshow at what age are farmersmost and least active before retiring (18-24 and 35-39 age groups, respectively), atwhat age does their involvement inagriculture begin to notably decline (60-64 age group), what are the most oftenperformed agricultural activities(planting, irrigating, and harvesting), and which ones are considered difficult(transporting, weeding, and harvesting).The results also highlight the position of elderly household members as net negativecontributors, along with theirpresently modest share in the population. Inequality in income, land, and machineryownership, however, ishighlighted as a more immediate concern to any programme aimed at mitigating thenegative effects of rural aging.Lastly, the use of fitness trackers is justified as correlated measured and reportedintensity of select agriculturalactivities indicates the potential for practical use. Keywords Aging . Older adults . India . Agriculture . Farmers
* Vladimir Milovanovic [email protected] Lubos Smutka [email protected]
1
Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Science Prague, Kamycka 129, 165 00 Prague, Czech Republic
V. Milovanovic, L. Smutka
Introduction India faces accelerated population aging, accompanied by a set of socio-economic changes and slower economic growth (Brendan and Sek 2016). Declining fertility rate, increasing longevity, and large cohorts advancing to older ages are the driving forces behind the three times higher growth rate of elderly individuals (60 years of age and older) compared to that of the population (Lee et al. 2014; Sathyanarayana et al. 2014). Considering country’s overwhelming agricultural base, the projected increase in elderly population from current 109 million people to over 300 million by 2050 is likely to lead to disproportionately greater challenges for rural population compared to their urban counterparts (United Nations, 2015; Kardile and Peisah 2017). The inefficient social safety net, negligible retirement savings, and the uprooting effects of climate change are some of the difficulties rural population may have to cope with (Uppal and Sarma 2007). The unevenly distributed benefits of post-independence economic progress between urban and rural areas are likely to adversely affect those efforts, despi
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