Motherland of aged rural areas (3,7)

'motherland' is the definition.
(old country is a kind of motherland)

'aged rural areas' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'aged' could be 'old' (similar in meaning) and 'old' is found in the answer.
'rural' could be 'country' (similar in meaning) and 'country' is present in the answer.
No letters remain.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

'of' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?