Cultivating Malaysia's next generation farmers

LETTERS: "Would you consider becoming a farmer?" ask a group of young Malaysians. That question and the answer may not be an immediate yes.

We often interpret this response as young people simply not being interested in farming. Perhaps that's the wrong question.

Instead of repeatedly asking why Gen Z does not want to venture into farming, we should also ask what kind of future we are offering them if they do.

The question matters because our farming population is ageing. Recent findings indicate that nearly one in two agricultural workers is aged 40 and above, while the Agriculture Census shows that 45.4 per cent of individual agricultural holders are already aged 60 and above.

If fewer young Malaysians enter the sector, the issue will eventually go beyond labour shortages. Someone will have to take over farms, continue food production and carry decades of agricultural knowledge into the next generation.

Farming itself is changing. Mechanisation, drones, sensors, automated irrigation and smart-farming systems are gradually altering how agricultural work is carried out. Technology can improve productivity, but there is another benefit that receives less attention: it can also change the experience of farming as work.

A young person who imagines farming as standing under the sun with basic tools will see a very different career from one who sees a farmer using drones to monitor crops, checking irrigation through a digital system or using farm data to make decisions.

This does not mean putting a drone on a farm will suddenly make an entire generation interested in agriculture. Farming will still involve outdoor conditions, physical work and uncertainty. Technology cannot remove the weather, nor can an app guarantee a good harvest. But jobs can evolve.

If Malaysia wants a new generation of farmers, then modernising agriculture should also involve thinking about the people doing the work, not only the technology they use.

Income may matter even more. A 2026 study by the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs involving 14,305 students aged 15 and 16 found that higher income was the strongest incentive for young people to consider careers in agriculture.

Among TVET students, opportunities for training and skills development were particularly important. That finding should not surprise us.

Young people cannot be expected to choose farming simply because Malaysia needs farmers. In human resource terms, this is not only a recruitment problem. Getting young people through the door is one thing; giving them reasons to stay is another.

There is another reason why attracting younger Malaysians into agriculture cannot wait too long.

Experienced farmers carry knowledge that is difficult to reproduce. They understand their soil, crops, weather patterns, pests and local markets through years of observation. Some of that knowledge may never appear in a manual, training module or digital system. It lives in experience.

If young people enter only after many experienced farmers have left, part of that knowledge may leave with them. This is why generational renewal should not be framed as Gen Z replacing older farmers. There is far more value in getting the generations to work together.

An experienced farmer may notice a change in a crop because he or she has seen the same pattern many times before. A younger farmer may have the digital skills to record that information, analyse it and apply it more systematically.

One brings experience. The other may bring new tools. Agriculture needs both. Succession planning in farming should therefore be about more than who eventually owns or manages a farm. It should also be about how knowledge is passed from one generation to another while new technological and business capabilities are introduced.

Exposure matters too. If the only image young Malaysians have of agriculture is physically exhausting work with limited financial prospects, we should not be surprised when they look elsewhere.

If we want Gen Z to consider farming seriously, agriculture has to compete seriously for their talent. That means looking at income and career prospects as carefully as we look at technology.

DR NOR FARAH HANIS ZAINUN
School of Business Management,
Universiti Utara Malaysia

The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times