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Rapid demographic ageing substantially affects socioeconomic development 1 – 4 and presents considerable challenges for food security and agricultural sustainability 5 – 8 , which have so far not been well understood. Here, by using data from more than 15,000 rural households with crops but no livestock across China, we show that rural population ageing reduced farm size by 4% through transferring cropland ownership and land abandonment (approximately 4 million hectares) in 2019, taking the population age structure in 1990 as a benchmark. These changes led to a reduction of agricultural inputs, including chemical fertilizers, manure and machinery, which decreased agricultural output and labour productivity by 5% and 4%, respectively, further lowering farmers’ income by 15%. Meanwhile, fertilizer loss increased by 3%, resulting in higher pollutant emissions to the environment. In new farming models, such as cooperative farming, farms tend to be larger and operated by younger farmers, who have a higher average education level, hence improving agricultural management. By encouraging the transition to new farming models, the negative consequences of ageing can be reversed. Agricultural input, farm size and farmer’s income would grow by approximately 14%, 20% and 26%, respectively, and fertilizer loss would reduce by 4% in 2100 compared with that in 2020. This suggests that management of rural ageing will contribute to a comprehensive transformation of smallholder farming to sustainable agriculture in China. Rural population ageing reduces the sustainability of smallholder farming in China, but the transition to a new farming model could reverse the negative effects of rural population ageing.

Recently, concern has increased globally over farmers’ mental health issues. We present a systematic review of the outcomes, locations, study designs, and methods of current studies on farmers’ mental health. In particular, this review aims to fill an important gap in understanding of the potential key risk factors affecting farmers’ mental health around the world. 167 articles on farmer mental health were included in a final systematic review using a standardized electronic literature search strategy and PRISMA guidelines. The four most-cited influences on farmers’ mental health in the reviewed literature respectively were pesticide exposure, financial difficulties, climate variabilities/drought, and poor physical health/past injuries. The majority of studies were from developed countries, most specifically from the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Comparative studies on the mental health of farmers and other occupational workers showed mixed results, with a larger portion identifying that psychological health disturbances were more common in farmers and farm-workers. Knowledge of farmer psychological disorder risk factors and its impacts are essential for reducing the burden of mental illness. Further research will be required on climate change impacts, developing country farmers’ mental health, and information on how to reduce help-seeking barriers amongst farmers.

The authors report on attempts to increase the yield of smallholder farms in China using ten practices recommended by the Science and Technology Backyard for farming maize and wheat at county level. Better crop yields for smallholder farms Closing the gap between realized and potential crop yields is key to sustainably feeding the world's growing population. Fusuo Zhang and colleagues report on attempts to increase wheat and maize yields of smallholder farms in four villages in Quzhou County in the North China Plain, using ten practices recommended by the Science and Technology Backyard, a co-operative research project involving agricultural scientists, local extension officers and smallholder farmers. Adoption of these practices—including alternative seed varieties, sowing times and other crop management practices—raised five-year-average yields from 68% to 97% of the attainable level on target farms, and 63% to 80% countywide. The authors suggest that this approach could be adopted in other parts of the world to help smallholder farmers achieve greater yields. Sustainably feeding the world’s growing population is a challenge 1 , 2 , 3 , and closing yield gaps (that is, differences between farmers’ yields and what are attainable for a given region) 4 , 5 , 6 is a vital strategy to address this challenge 3 , 4 , 7 . The magnitude of yield gaps is particularly large in developing countries where smallholder farming dominates the agricultural landscape 4 , 7 . Many factors and constraints interact to limit yields 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 8 , 9 , 10 , and progress in problem-solving to bring about changes at the ground level is rare. Here we present an innovative approach for enabling smallholders to achieve yield and economic gains sustainably via the Science and Technology Backyard (STB) platform. STB involves agricultural scientists living in villages among farmers, advancing participatory innovation and technology transfer, and garnering public and private support. We identified multifaceted yield-limiting factors involving agronomic, infrastructural, and socioeconomic conditions. When these limitations and farmers’ concerns were addressed, the farmers adopted recommended management practices, thereby improving production outcomes. In one region in China, the five-year average yield increased from 67.9% of the attainable level to 97.0% among 71 leading farmers, and from 62.8% to 79.6% countywide (93,074 households); this was accompanied by resource and economic benefits.

The use of antibiotics in livestock production is considered a major driver of antibiotic resistance on a global scale. In Vietnam, small- and medium-scale livestock producers dominate the domestic market and regulatory pushes have done little to decrease antibiotic use. In order to inform future policy directions, this study aims to explore knowledge, attitudes, and practices amongst livestock producers to identify their perspectives on antibiotic use and resistance. A total of 392 small- and medium-scale producers specialized in pig, poultry and aquaculture production participated in the study. The results showed that the primary reason for antibiotic use reported by producers was for the treatment of infections (69%). However, prophylactic use was also evident, with farmers reporting other reasons for antibiotic use such as \"animals display abnormal symptoms or behaviour\" (55%), the \"weather is about to change\" (25%), or \"animals on neighboring farms fall ill\" (27%). Only one-fifth of producers demonstrated favorable attitudes towards antibiotic use and preventing antibiotic resistance. Moreover, administering antibiotics remained the preferred countermeasure directly applied by farmers at the first indication of disease (17%), compared to enacting hygiene (10%) or quarantine (5%) measures. The results showed divergent trends amongst producers, with pig producers demonstrating higher levels of knowledge, more favorable attitudes, and higher self-reported utilization of good practice. Better knowledge, attitudes, and practices were also associated with producers who engaged in efforts to explore information on antibiotic use and resistance, which improved incrementally with the number of sources consulted and hours invested. However, there were some areas where increased knowledge or more favorable attitude scores did not translate into better practices. For instance, producers with higher levels of formal education performed significantly better than those with lower education in terms of knowledge and attitude, though both groups reported similar practices. The findings of this study may support future interventions to prevent both antibiotic misuse and the development of antimicrobial resistance.

As of August 2020, the United States is the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic. Emerging data suggests that \"essential\" workers, who are disproportionately more likely to be racial/ethnic minorities and immigrants, bear a disproportionate degree of risk. We used publicly available data to build a series of spatial autoregressive models assessing county level associations between COVID-19 mortality and (1) percentage of individuals engaged in farm work, (2) percentage of households without a fluent, adult English-speaker, (3) percentage of uninsured individuals under the age of 65, and (4) percentage of individuals living at or below the federal poverty line. We further adjusted these models for total population, population density, and number of days since the first reported case in a given county. We found that across all counties that had reported a case of COVID-19 as of July 12, 2020 (n = 3024), a higher percentage of farmworkers, a higher percentage of residents living in poverty, higher density, higher population, and a higher percentage of residents over the age of 65 were all independently and significantly associated with a higher number of deaths in a county. In urban counties (n = 115), a higher percentage of farmworkers, higher density, and larger population were all associated with a higher number of deaths, while lower rates of insurance coverage in a county was independently associated with fewer deaths. In non-urban counties (n = 2909), these same patterns held true, with higher percentages of residents living in poverty and senior residents also significantly associated with more deaths. Taken together, our findings suggest that farm workers may face unique risks of contracting and dying from COVID-19, and that these risks are independent of poverty, insurance, or linguistic accessibility of COVID-19 health campaigns.

The key to rural revitalization lies in talent revitalization. Cultivating a workforce that understands agriculture, loves rural areas, and cares for farmers, while retaining talent in rural regions, is of greater significance for comprehensively advancing rural revitalization. From the perspective of farm household part-time farming, this study takes the One Village, One University Student program as an example. Using survey data from 2552 farm households across 12 counties (cities and districts) in Jiangxi Province, China, and employing the ESR model, this study empirically analyzes the impact of rural revitalization talent cultivation on farm household part-time farming. It further explores the differentiated effects of various educational levels and learning modes of talent cultivation on the part-time farming. The results show that rural revitalization talent cultivation significantly reduces the degree of part-time farming, with higher-level education and correspondence education having particularly pronounced effects in enhancing agricultural skills and production efficiency. Based on these findings, this paper proposes policy recommendations to intensify rural revitalization talent cultivation, improve the educational levels and content, optimize educational modes, and strengthen the policy advocacy, aiming to further promote rural economic development and increase farmers' income.

Objectives This review aimed to quantify suicide risk among agricultural, forestry, and fishery workers and study potential variations of risk within this population. Methods We conducted a systematic literature review and meta-analysis from 1995 to 2016 using MEDLINE and following the PRISMA guidelines. A pooled effect size of suicide risk among the population of interest was calculated using meta-analysis. Subgroup analyses were conducted to investigate whether effect size differed according to population or study characteristics. Meta-regression was used to identify sources of heterogeneity. Results The systematic review identified 65 studies, of which 32 were included in the meta-analysis. Pooled effect size was 1.48 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.30-1.68] representing an excess of suicide risk among the population of interest. Subgroup analysis showed that this effect size varied according to geographic area, with a higher effect size in Japan. The following study characteristics were found to contribute to the between-study variance: reference group, measure of effect size, and study design. Conclusions Our findings suggest an excess of suicide risk among agricultural, forestry, and fishery workers and demonstrated that this excess may be even higher for these groups in Japan. This review highlights the need for suicide prevention policies focusing on this specific population of workers. More research is also needed to better understand the underlying factors that may increase suicide risk in this population.

Background This study described exposure to abuse (emotional, sexual, and physical) against Latinas in the seasonal farmworker community, and visualized associations of exposure at three time points (past-month, past-12 months, and lifetime) with social network structures. Methods Data were collected from 260 Latina seasonal farmworkers in South Florida between 2015 and 2016; the data included 20 friendship networks, each with 13 participants. Chi-square and ANOVA tests describe participants’ characteristics. To evaluate the total number of friendship connections (e.g., ties) an individual (e.g., node), had to the other nodes in a network, R was used to calculate degree centrality. Visone and Cytoscape software were then used to create social network visualizations for each of the sociocentric networks. Results Non-U.S. born respondents reported experiencing some form of abuse more often than U.S. born respondents (e.g., 69.7% vs. 13.8% for lifetime emotional abuse). Across all forms of abuse and time points, the prevalence of abuse perpetuated by husbands was the largest, except for lifetime sexual abuse, which was led by close family members (26.8% vs. 21.1%). Network visualizations show that participants who reported lifetime emotional abuse tended to cluster together in their social networks. Cases for the three forms of abuse were present in all networks. Conclusions By understanding how women from an undeserved population who have experienced these forms of abuse are linked through their friendship network structures, interventionalists can better identify the role of intimate partner violence in HIV/STD risk reduction interventions, targeted reproductive health approaches, and empower women to report abuse. Network visualizations can be used in process evaluations by informing how to restructure network configurations.

Information accessibility is a pivotal factor influencing farmers’ adoption of Agricultural Green Production Technologies (AGPT). However, the widespread issue of information poverty presents a significant obstacle to this adoption process, thereby hindering the progression towards sustainable agricultural development. To address this information deficit, farmers have begun to utilize the Internet and participate in government-led onsite assembly training programs to acquire the necessary knowledge. Yet there is still a lack of research evidence on the effectiveness and comparative advantages of internet and offline training. This study explores the impact of various information access channels on farmers’ adoption of green production technologies in agriculture, focusing on a sample of 731 family farms located in Sichuan Province. The issue of endogeneity was addressed using the Conditional Mixed Process Estimation Method. The sample underwent a t-test and heterogeneity analysis. The findings revealed that both internet-based information access and participation in training significantly bolstered farmers’ adoption of AGPT, with the former proving to be more effective. Notably, heterogeneity was observed among farmers, differentiated by age and the number of village cadres within their family units.

In recent years, entrepreneurship has been gaining more prominence as a potential tool for solving poverty in developing countries. This paper mainly examines the relationship between farmer entrepreneurship and rural poverty alleviation in China by assessing the contribution of farm entrepreneurs towards overcoming poverty. Data were collected from 309 employees of farmer entrepreneurships in Guangxi Province through survey questionnaires. Structural equation modeling was used to conduct an analysis of the effects of three identified capabilities of farm entrepreneurs-economic, educational and knowledge, and socio-cultural capabilities-on attitude towards farmer entrepreneurship growth and the qualitative growth of farmer entrepreneurship and how these in turn affect rural poverty, using AMOS 21. The findings show that socio-cultural capability has the greatest influence on farmer entrepreneurship growth (β = 0.50, p<0.001). The qualitative growth of farmer entrepreneurship also more significantly impacts rural poverty (β = 0.69, p<0.001) than attitude towards farmer entrepreneurship growth. This study suggests that policy makers in China should involve more rural farmers in the targeted poverty alleviation strategies of the government by equipping rural farmers with entrepreneurial skills. This can serve as a sustainable, bottom-up approach to alleviating rural poverty in remote areas of the country. The study also extends the literature on the farmer entrepreneurship-rural poverty alleviation nexus in China, and this can serve as a lesson for other developing countries in the fight against rural poverty.