Agricultural labour crunch in Asia to worsen unless public, private investments step up

Singapore

AS economies develop, labour is being sucked out of the agriculture industry with implications for the region's soft commodity companies. Experts warned this shift could also be harmful to economies. Without an increase in public and private investments into the sector, there could be a risk of shortages as smallholders - or farmers who own only small plots of land - are forced out.

This shift has been evident in agriculture-dominant economies such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand, which have seen their share of gross domestic product (GDP) from the sector trend downwards from 2010 to 2019. According to data from Statista, Indonesia's share of GDP from agriculture fell to 12.7 per cent from 13.9 per cent over that period. Malaysia's declined to 7.3 per cent from 10.1 per cent, and Thailand's slipped to 8 per cent from 10.5 per cent.