Average Age of a Farmer in Brazil is Getting....Younger?

Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
The American farmer is aging, which is also an indication that we aren’t seeing younger generations step into those roles and take over operations. Other countries, like Brazil, are actually seeing the opposite. Purdue University ag economist Dr. Trey Malone says there’s been a spike in the number of new, young farmers in Brazil.
Malone… “You know, we talk about the U.S. ag system being this, like, rapidly aging population and people are worried about intergenerational farm transfers and all these things, and they should be. I think we assume that the United States looks just like everywhere else, and it just is not the case. And so, you know, here at Purdue, actually, we work quite a bit with understanding Brazilian markets and Brazilian producers, because, I mean, frankly, they just treat the world differently than we do and, and I think there's a lot of value in understanding those international perspectives.”
Dr. Malone believes this is because of two reasons: Brazil has more access to affordable land, and there’s less competition with other job opportunities there.
Malone… “I think part of it is that you can keep adding land into production, right? So, you have this at least opportunity for younger farmers to get involved without having to, you know, carve out some parcel from a hugely consolidated farm that's been around for a hundred years. It's just a different incentive structure. I think part of it also is the opportunities that we have in the United States versus in Brazil.”
That’s Purdue’s Dr. Trey Malone.