Many emerging Asian economies are approaching a demographic inflection point. Middle-income countries like Thailand, Viet Nam, and Indonesia are experiencing rapid aging and falling birth rates, which will contract their working-age population in the coming years.

Limited safety nets leave many older people no choice but to work past statutory retirement age. Among Asia’s developing countries, 32% of males aged 65 and above still work, compared to 21% of older males in developed European countries. About 94% of the older workforce is in the informal sector.

Agriculture employs a significant share of older workers: among those aged 60-64, agriculture accounted for about 35% of employment in the Philippines (2021), 47% in Viet Nam (2022), 50% in Indonesia (2022), and 58% in Thailand (2022).

Many are small-scale farmers with little access to machinery, leaving them to cope with declining strength and limited family support as younger relatives move to cities.

At the same time, the agricultural workforce itself is aging. Nearly half of agricultural workers in Indonesia (48%) and the Philippines (49%) is over 50; in Japan, the average farmer is 68.7 years old. With the average age of farmers rising, there is an urgent need to strengthen the support system to make farming age-friendly.

Mechanization offers a practical solution. By reducing the physical demands of farming, mechanization can ease the burden of labor and extend older farmers’ productive working years. Thailand, for example, is one of largest producers of farming machinery in Asia, and efforts like the power-tiller distribution in northern rice-harvesting regions in the 1990’s have improved harvesting efficiency.

However, adoption remains limited due to financial, technological, geographic, and institutional barriers, particularly for the elderly, who are often excluded from available programs. Essential machinery often costs more than a smallholder’s annual income.

Machinery dealerships and training centers are concentrated in rural hubs, requiring older farmers to travel long distances to access services. Even when machines are available and accessible, without tech-savvy family to help, many are hesitant to adopt unfamiliar technology.

Most data sets rarely isolate older informal farmers, so the extent of adoption and impact of mechanization on older, small-scale farmers are difficult to assess.

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Financial exclusion compounds these obstacles. Even in countries with relatively high financial inclusion like Malaysia and Thailand, older adults are disproportionately affected – of the 22% of Thais who do not have bank accounts, over half are aged 55 and older, and the rate of digital financial inclusion among elderly Thais is only 7%.

This pattern is more pronounced in countries such as Indonesia, Philippines, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka, where older farmers are often excluded from government-backed loan programs that require bank accounts, online loan applications, formal income, or collateral. The system is built for mid-to-large-scale, formally employed farmers. As the rural workforce ages, these access gaps will only widen.

Supporting agricultural mechanization among older farmers must therefore overcome these constraints by fostering financial and technical support structures. Cash transfers like direct rental subsidies or time-bound vouchers can help older farmers access equipment without relying on formal credit.

Community-managed saving schemes and village loan funds can offer affordable machinery financing. Bangladesh demonstrated this approach by subsidizing two-wheel tractors and supporting rental markets through microcredit and informal cooperatives, giving even unbanked and landless farmers access to machinery.

This model demonstrates how restructured financing can include older smallholders without collateral or formal banking.

Geographic barriers to mechanization must also be reduced. Developing wide networks of local tool hubs such as India’s custom hiring centers would bring essential equipment closer to villages, allowing smallholders to rent machinery on a pay-per-use basis with flexible financing tools.

India’s custom hiring centers have shown how decentralizing delivery reduces travel burdens, lowers costs, and makes mechanization accessible to smallholders, an approach particularly valuable for older farmers with mobility constraints.

Finally, training and support must evolve to meet the needs of an aging population. Age-appropriate, peer-led training programs can bridge knowledge gaps and build confidence among older farmers who may hesitate to embrace unfamiliar technology.

In Japan, this instructional approach, combined with compact, age-friendly equipment designs, has reduced adoption hesitancy and helped older farmers remain productive without relying on younger labor.

These strategies offer adaptable blueprints that countries can tailor to their own contexts without building entirely new systems. Many countries already possess informal and cooperative structures capable of supporting inclusive mechanization, but these are often misaligned with older farmers’ needs.

Local savings schemes and community-managed funds provide microloans for small-scale rural entrepreneurs and developing agriculture, yet insufficient oversight make them unreliable for older farmers seeking equipment. Cooperatives offer machinery, but without access or training, older farmers remain excluded.

Combining informal financing, decentralized tool hubs, and peer-led training can expand machinery access and extend older farmers’ working lives. Alongside these financial and technical supports for older farmers, governments should foster rental markets for agricultural equipment by offering credit incentives and building the necessary infrastructure (roads, fuel supply, engineering support) to make mechanization more accessible and sustainable.

Programs should embed evaluation mechanisms so governments and development partners can pilot age-friendly mechanization schemes, track age-specific outcomes, and scale what works. Without feedback loops, policies risk excluding those who most need support.

As the region faces both rapid aging and high agricultural informality, investing in strategies that center older farmers in design and delivery can sustain agricultural productivity, improve the working life of older farmers, and set a powerful example for managing demographic transitions.