Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

How can agricultural policies and strategies help to end child labour in agriculture?".

Child labour has been a problem in most of the countries though they all are trying to end or even to reduce its magnitude. But no result has been achieved until now. We have seen most of the child labour has been seen in some sectors like public vehicles, industries, magic and circus, garbage management, and agriculture. Most of the countries have been suffered from the issues of child labour painfully. In this respect Nepal is one the countries which has a great problem of child labour in different sectors except somehow in the magic and circus. Therefore, Nepal has been done commitments and advocacies in various international and national forums to end or to mitigate the child labour from the country. But it has not yet been achieved the results as the expectations were done.

Nepal is an agricultural country where more than two-thirds of the employees are engaged in agriculture.  Almost half of all the children in the country are economically active who are employed in different sectors but concentrating in agriculture occupation since their family members are doing works in farm land or talking to them about the activities of agriculture. The children go to the field even without the permission of their parents rather for their pleasures. But it has to be stopped the works of the children in each and every country. The policy / strategies should have to be undertaken by the government followed by the households too as follows:

A. Role of the government:

1. It has to be incorporated in the main constitution of the country that no child labour will be mobilized in any sort of occupation including the agriculture sector.
2. In the case of Nepal it has to be circulated in all the 3 steps federal, provincial and local government.
3. Strictly mention in the act about the prohibition of the child labour.
4. Banned in the consumption with restriction in marketing of the products that were done with child labour.
5. Mechanisation in agriculture which can increase mainly the production, and reduce the human labour force on the other hand.
6. More facilities to the children to go to the schools.
7. Cheaper the wage rate of the labour in the country so that less family members including the children will be involved in farming.
8. Provide opportunities to the children for developing their physical and mental status.
9. Create opportunities of playing games in the schools and out of the schools.
10. Heavily subsidise or full scholarship in education for the children.
11. Publish and propaganda to stop the child labour in the country.
12. Monitoring and supervision of the child labour directly by the authorities in the field.

B. Role of the family (household)

1. Divert the mind of the children from working in the field to their books and schools.
2. Discourage the children to go to the fields rather encourage to go their schools.
3.  More and more children to be admitted in the schools.
4. Create homely environment to the children to spend their leisure time in the games and physical exercises or yog. 

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Question 7 - Cross-sectoral policies and strategies - Addressing hazardous child labour and reducing risks posed by hazardous pesticides.

Thank you for this online consultation.

As part of the Rotterdam Convention Secretariat in FAO (AGPMR), I would like to stress the importance of the close inter-departmental and multi-disciplinary collaboration which led to several activities carried out together with the Child Labour in Agriculture Prevention team over the last decade. Great attention was given to raise awareness on child labour, to promote decent work conditions and occupational safety and health measures in agriculture while simultaneously encouraging the implementation of safe and sustainable practices in agriculture.

Good results have been achieved to detect cases of pesticide poisoning in the field and identify high-risk exposure scenarios, with a focus on vulnerable groups, considering that not everyone is equally exposed to hazardous pesticides for biological, social and economic reasons. Currently, 71% of all child labour is found in agriculture and nearly half of all child labour globally is considered hazardous work, including handling pesticides. Children are still developing their mind and body and can be particularly vulnerable to the toxic effects of hazardous pesticides. Children may be exposed to pesticides directly by applying and mixing them or indirectly while working or playing in the field recently sprayed with pesticides or at home, where pesticides are unsafely stored.

Guidances and capacity building materials were jointly developed to this regard such as the facilitator’s visual tool “Protect children from pesticides!” and the e-learning course on “Pesticide management and child labour prevention”. Global awareness with a broader audience was also raised in international congresses in the field of occupational health and safety where OSH practitioners and experts from academia from all around the world gathered to share their experience and knowledge addressing the key OSH challenges and solutions. In those occasions, the Rotterdam Convention Secretariat together with the Child Labour in Agriculture Prevention team presented their work in addressing risks posed by hazardous pesticides and reducing child labour in the agricultural sector. In addition, great emphasis was also given in several specific side events on highly hazardous pesticides and children exposure during the Conference of the Parties of the Rotterdam Convention held every two years together with the other two multilateral environmental agreements on hazardous chemicals and wastes (Basel and Stockholm Conventions) that gather together pesticide experts, agricultural and environmental stakeholders, industries, NGOs and academia.

Facilitating dialogue and cooperation among various national stakeholders (Ministries of agriculture, environment, labour, pesticides control boards, NGOs, farmers) and raising awareness at multiple level are essential components for addressing child labour issue and making agricultural policies and regulations sensitive to health and safety in the interest of children and youth. This is a continuous challenge that pose new (and old) questions to policy-makers, agricultural and labour stakeholders etc. Improved pesticide risk reduction strategies can contribute to the prevention of child labour, including protecting those of legal age to work.

It is worth mentioning the example of the revised International Code of Conduct on Pesticide Management FAO-WHO (2013) which pays greater attention to vulnerable groups, with specific recommendations for governments and industries with regards to children and child labourers. Children under the age of 18 should not be handling pesticides – and that this should be included in national hazardous work lists of work prohibited for children.

The international regulatory mechanisms can play an important role to address child labour and hazardous work at country level. The Rotterdam Convention, with its objective to protect human health and the environment from the risks posed by pesticides and industrial chemicals, establishes a “right to know”, relating to sharing information concerning hazardous chemicals in trade, and provides technical assistance to national stakeholders on different aspects of pesticide management, by integrating the challenge of reducing child labour and protecting children, youth and the environment. Its work ensures that policy makers get aware of risks farmers face by the use of hazardous pesticides (also when it refers to hazardous work for the most vulnerable people) and can take informed regulatory actions.

English translation below

Bonjour à toutes et tous pour les échanges très intéressants. Je souhaiterais contribuer aux discussions en apportant une expérience concrète menée au Mali par la FAO, en lien avec la lutte contre le travail des enfants.

Dans ce pays, comme dans d’autres au Sahel, les populations rurales vivent principalement de l’agriculture, dans un environnement hostile et pauvre. Dans ce contexte, les enfants courent le risque cyclique de ne jamais sortir du cercle vicieux de la pauvreté dans lequel ils sont exploités à outrance.

Toute intervention de terrain censée contribuer à éradiquer le travail des enfants est complexe mais elle devrait toujours être articulée autour de deux éléments : d’une part, la prise de conscience de ce phénomène par les agriculteurs/agricultrices eux-mêmes et par les principales victimes, c’est-à-dire les enfants, et d’autre part, leur implication effective dans le recherche de solutions pour mettre fin au travail des enfants.

En 2017, la FAO a travaillé sur ces thèmes par le biais d’une synergie avec les Clubs Dimitra de la FAO, mise en œuvre dans le cercle de Bandiagara, au Mali. Les Clubs Dimitra sont une approche de mobilisation communautaire et d’autonomisation développée par la FAO et mise en place en Afrique subsaharienne depuis une dizaine d’années.  Dans six villages des communes de Doucombo et Dandoli, une trentaine de Clubs Dimitra (CD) avaient été mis en place dans ces villages un an plus tôt pour renforcer le volet social d’un projet visant à améliorer la nutrition, pour démultiplier les bonnes pratiques acquises par les ménages vulnérables de Bandiagara et améliorer ainsi la résilience des bénéficiaires tout en consolidant les impacts du projet.

A la fin de ce projet, la dynamique mise en place avec les Clubs Dimitra a été mise à profit avec succès par une initiative de la FAO portant sur la lutte contre le travail des enfants.

La stratégie choisie a consisté à renforcer les capacités des membres des Clubs Dimitra existants afin qu’ils puissent s’investir, mobiliser et sensibiliser les populations de ces villages. Il s’agissait de réduire le recours au travail des enfants, utilisé en tant que stratégie négative d’adaptation/de survie et dont les causes profondes sont souvent les difficultés socio-économiques des familles rurales.

Ainsi, à travers les Clubs Dimitra créés dans cette zone du pays, et grâce à leurs capacités de mobilisation communautaire, un accent spécifique a été mis sur les femmes adultes et sur les jeunes filles et garçons entre 15 et 17 ans. Une formation a d’abord été organisée à l’intention des leaders des clubs (jeunes filles, jeunes hommes, femmes et hommes), des chefs des villages et des animateurs des radios communautaires afin de les outiller à mieux inclure la lutte contre le travail des enfants dans l’exercice de leur rôle habituel et à veiller continuellement, par des dispositions définies par eux-mêmes, pour lutter contre les pratiques néfastes et nocives liées au travail des enfants.

L’utilisation des Clubs Dimitra pour la sensibilisation sur un thème aussi « délicat » trouve tout son sens car les clubs sont un espace de communication « sécurisé » qui ont permis aux communautés d’arriver à une meilleure compréhension et de s’approprier les voies d’analyse du phénomène du travail des enfants. Cela s’est fait par le biais des discussions habituelles des clubs. Cette appropriation est fondamentale pour que les parents et les enfants eux-mêmes en tant que futurs adultes commencent par analyser la situation du travail des enfants.

Les autorités villageoises, les leaders des clubs, les jeunes et les parents (hommes et femmes), dans leur rôle d’acteurs clés, ont participé tous ensemble à ces efforts de réflexion, d’identification des phénomènes, d’analyse, de discussion et de décision sur les mesures à prendre. Au sein des Clubs Dimitra d’abord, avec les enfants, puis avec toute la communauté ensuite, un dialogue s’est instauré sur l’importance d’éviter les tâches qui nuisent à la santé physique et mentale des enfants, et de garantir leur scolarité.

Le chef du village de Djiguibombo, conscient de l’importance de cette façon de faire, n’a eu de cesse de rappeler que les Clubs constituent un cadre approprié où la préoccupation du travail des enfants est discutée et des solutions décidées en impliquant tout le monde, ce qui permet de mieux accepter et suivre ensuite les décisions et les mesures décidées de façon collégiale. En effet, pour une véritable prohibition des pratiques néfastes du travail des enfants, il est fondamental d’avoir l’adhésion de toutes et de tous, ce que la méthodologie des Clubs Dimitra a permis de garantir.

Quant aux jeunes de 15-17 ans, ils ont réfléchi sur le sujet au sein de leur club et ont appris à développer des arguments pertinents pour dialoguer avec les autres générations, dans le respect des normes sociales instituées par leur culture.

Les jeunes de chaque village sont parvenus à cerner la notion du travail des enfants et à constituer avec les adultes un « Comité de veille ». Ce comité identifie des cas réels des pires formes de travail des enfants en pratique dans le village et les soumet aux débats dans les clubs pour que soient discutés la nature, le degré de gravité, les raisons et les voies de remédiation. Le résultat de ces débats sont ensuite entérinés en assemblée villageoise.

Dans cet intéressant parcours, la radio communautaire a joué sa part en organisant et diffusant un débat autour des dispositions de lutte prises dans un village contre les pratiques néfastes liées au travail des enfants. Ce débat radiophonique a alimenté le réseau de partage des bonnes pratiques des Clubs Dimitra à l’échelle de toute la commune et même au-delà, faisant ainsi bénéficier d’autres villages qui n’étaient pas ciblés directement par l’initiative.

Cette expérience montre combien il est important de miser sur une prise de conscience des dangers du travail des enfants, en particulier dans l’agriculture, en permettant à tous les membres des communautés de s’engager ensuite dans la lutte contre les pratiques néfastes dans ce domaine. L’action collective sur une question aussi sensible a été fondamentale pour apporter des changements positifs dans ce domaine.

Hello everyone for the very interesting exchanges. I would like to contribute to the discussion by bringing a concrete experience in Mali from FAO, in connection with the fight against child labor.

In this country, as in others in the Sahel, the rural population lives mainly from agriculture, in a hostile and poor environment. In this context, children run the cyclical risk of never breaking out of the vicious cycle of poverty in which they are exploited to the extreme.

Any intervention on the ground supposed to contribute to eradicating child labor is complex but it should always be articulated around two elements: on the one hand, the awareness of this phenomenon among the farmers themselves and among the main victims, that is to say children, and on the other hand, their effective involvement in the search for solutions to put an end to child labor.

In 2017, FAO worked on these themes through a synergy with the FAO Dimitra Clubs, implemented in the Bandiagara district in Mali. The Dimitra Clubs are an approach for community mobilization and empowerment developed by FAO and implemented in sub-Saharan Africa for ten years. In six villages in the municipalities of Doucombo and Dandoli, around thirty Dimitra Clubs had been set up in these villages a year earlier to strengthen the social aspect of a project aimed at improving nutrition, to multiply good practices acquired by vulnerable households in Bandiagara and thus improve the resilience of beneficiaries while consolidating the impacts of the project.

The chosen strategy consisted in strengthening the capacities of the members of the existing Dimitra Clubs so that they could invest, mobilize and sensitize the populations of these villages. The aim was to reduce the use of child labor, which is used as a negative strategy of adaptation / survival and whose root causes are often the socio-economic difficulties of rural families.

Thus, through the Dimitra Clubs created in this area of ​​the country, and thanks to their capacity of community mobilization, a specific emphasis was placed on adult women and on young girls and boys between 15 and 17 years old. Training was first organized for club leaders (girls, young men, women and men), village leaders and community radio hosts to equip them to better include the fight against work children in the exercise of their usual role and to watch continuously, through measures defined by themselves, to combat harmful practices linked to child labor.

The use of Dimitra Clubs to raise awareness on such a “delicate” theme finds all its meaning because the clubs are a “secure” communication space which have enabled communities to come to a better understanding and to appropriate the ways to analyze the phenomenon of child labor. This was done through the usual club discussions. This appropriation is fundamental for parents and children themselves as future adults to begin by analyzing the situation of child labor.

Village authorities, club leaders, young people and parents (men and women), in their role as key actors, have all participated in these efforts to reflect, identify phenomena, analyze and discuss and decision on the measures to be taken. First, in Dimitra Clubs, with the children, then with the whole community, a dialogue was established on the importance of avoiding tasks that harm the physical and mental health of children, and of ensuring their schooling.

The village chief of Djiguibombo, aware of the importance of this approach, has kept reminding that the Clubs constitute an appropriate framework where the concern for child labor is discussed and solutions decided by involving everyone, which makes it possible to better accept and then follow the decisions and measures which have been decided upon collectively. Indeed, for a true prohibition of harmful practices of child labor, it is fundamental to have the adhesion of all, which the methodology of the Dimitra Clubs has ensured.

As for young people aged 15-17, they reflected on the subject within their club and learned to develop relevant arguments for dialogue with other generations, while respecting the social standards of their culture.

The young people of each village managed to understand the concept of child labor and to establish, with adults, a "Monitoring Committee". This committee identifies real cases of the worst forms of child labor in practice in the village and brings them up for debate in the clubs so that the nature, the degree of severity, the reasons and the remedies are discussed. The results of these debates are then endorsed by the village assembly.

In this interesting journey, community radio played its part by organizing and broadcasting a debate around the measures taken to fight against harmful practices linked to child labour in a village. This radio debate fueled the network for sharing good practices of Dimitra Clubs across the entire municipality and even beyond, thereby benefiting other villages which were not directly targeted by the initiative.

This experience shows how important it is to build awareness of the dangers of child labor, especially in agriculture, by enabling all members of the community to then engage in the fight against harmful practices in this area. field. Collective action on such a sensitive issue has been fundamental to bringing about positive change in this area.

Following up from previous comments and contributions

1. http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/8899 Small Developing Island States
2. http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/9117 Youth Employment Africa
3. http://assets.fsnforum.fao.org.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/public/discussions/contributions/NDFAO-Science-of-combined-theroy.pdf Combined Needs & Potential Through Property Rights
4. http://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/9694 Future UNIDROIT-FAO-IFAD Legal Guide on Agricultural Land Investment Contracts (ALIC)

With the ability to sustain as a family unit, using fair share management systems maybe even taking in non-blood related relatives, freedom of time and leisure is there.

The key will be that every member of family blood or not should share a specified plot in an equal split in the initiative, children would be inheriters of the system one generation could establish.

This is all abstract for sure but isn't everything really. I mean we can do all sorts of stuff, silly to smart. We have proposed over and over an intelligent individual diet based "demand and conquer" fuel source for the movement towards a more natural and fulfilling life.

We need to learn how to eat optimally and learn permaculture.

I am trying to bring as much attention what we are doing here in Panama as possible at this point, we really do have the real gamechanger here (quick video).

While I'm aware and appreciate FAO's efforts on food security and nutrition, no progress can be made as long as corruption is not eradicated from all governments around the world. https://medium.com/@JCWandemberg/the-corruption-pandemia-68493a25d05

Could Lack of funding Justify Deprecating the Use of Policies and Strategies to Address Child Labour in Agricultural Pursuits?

In his second contribution to this discussion, Mr. Dick Tinsley maintains that the shortage of funds would make the use of appropriate policies and strategies ineffective in resolving the problem of child labour. However, we find this view untenable on several grounds. It is quite true that governments most concerned with child labour do not have sufficient financial resources to implement the policies required for the purpose.

However, in our previous contribution, we took ample account of this fact and suggested several ways of dealing with it:

• International military aid turned into defence aid against child labour; appropriate farming equipment, essential infra-structure, etc., which may be cheaper in monetary terms.

• Reductions in national defence budget.

• International assistance in appropriate resources listed therein.

• Moreover, we also recommended regional/local tactical implementation of the required policies, precisely to meet the budgetary problem Mr. Tinsley has noted. The advantages of such an approach are numerous as they will be described below. Here, let us point out that a tactical implementation of a policy represents a field implementation of it, in other words, a regional or a local project, where ‘regional remains a flexible term with reference to its demography/area.
  
   

Its advantages do not diminish even though one may not be able to apply it throughout a country. First, in the approach we have suggested, its principal aim is to ensure an adequate and wholesome public nutrition which also includes addressing child labour. This is justifiable and necessary, for hunger is an established motivator of child labour. It is impossible to ameliorate the latter without adequately dealing with the former.

Secondly, it is likely that the success of the proposed regional/local implementations would compel its wide-spread emulation. This would become easier as good result from a few areas could significantly ease the burden of implementing such tactics elsewhere in the country. It may even evoke public support for such action nationally and internationally.

It avoids two serious pitfalls into which many a development project has stumbled. First, unless such projects do not constitute the final step in the implementation of an appropriate policy, they will merely form disjointed actions that cannot fit into anything that resemble a cohesive and coherent food and agricultural policy. Unless a policy possesses those two attributes, it would be difficult to see what purpose it is intended to serve. We have already outlined that purpose in our previous contribution.

Thus, our proposed approach has the added advantage of policy cohesion and coherence. Such a policy clearly indicates where we intend to go and how. In short, it eliminates the need for ad hoc solutions of dubious benefit, which indeed entails a considerable saving. Stating the obvious, what we have proposed for pragmatic reasons, is a bottom-up implementation of an overall plan aimed at enabling the public to adequately satisfy its six fundamental needs so that it may enjoy a life of greater quality.

On the other hand, should we reject the present approach; our efforts will result in a collection of field implementations that cannot be subsumed by any cohesive and coherent food and agriculture policy. As such it will be full of intra-policy disharmonies that will pull it in different directions rather than a unified goal viz., ensuring sustainable, adequate and wholesome public nutrition and addresses the problem of child labour. Further, it underlines the necessity of harmonising the other national policies as an essential adjunctive measure without which the problem cannot be resolved.

We are fully aware of a real difficulty one would face in adopting this way forward. It is a question of competence and willingness to undertake the type of policy and strategy described here. World-wide environmental degradation and social inequities testify to this. Inadequate competence in holistic policy making is not surprising, for we have continued to solve our problems on a reductive basis for millennia. We may have an inkling of this inadequacy, hence the recent phrase ‘thinking in silos’, but we are yet to master how to act out of silos.

Unwillingness to undertake holistic action is not surprising either. Reasons for it include inter-institutional jealousies hidden behind the well-known ‘institutional autonomy’, other vested interests, institutional lethargy, desire to ‘pass the buck’ and guard one’s posterior, etc. Dealing with this difficulty is beyond any policy, and we can only appeal to what still remains of common decency and fairness in decision-makers and administrators.

Best wishes!

Lal Manavado.

Discussion Topic: How can Agricultural policies and strategies help to end child labour in agriculture?Case study: Kosha village, Ihugh town, Vandeikya L.G.A Benue state.Questions Attended(1&3): Hunger and Malnutrition, Family Farming.

Introduction:

Benue state is blessed with a fertile soil which has helped her maintain being the "Food basket of the Nation". However research has shown that most of its inhabitants are farmers and earn their living through the sales and exchange of farm produce. And to achieve reasonable yields which is also more money, this people involve their children into farming (Child labour).

FAMILY FARMING:

About 99% of the children in kosha are involved in the overall child labour. About 89% into unpaid family farming, while only about 10% work for clients in planting seasons and get some money for their up keeps.

This however, limit their full participation in academic activities affecting their performances in class. These children have to walk far distances to their parents farms and may even spend the whole day working in their parent farm lands. They sometimes get involved in domestic, road and chemical accidents in the process. They are also in some cases exposed to live threatening hazardous agricultural chemicals and practices due to their level of understanding, education, awareness and orientation as it concerns the chemicals (pesticides, herbicides etc) and tools used in the process.

Kosha is considered a rural settlement in this research, as almost all the children are indigenes and are involved in the said child labour. This may also be attributed to the very poor level of livelihood, family income and lack of good/quality education. The educational sector is even worse especially the government owned schools, as they lack quality/committed teachers, standard infrastructures( such as classes, chairs, Woking laboratories and laboratory equipment and reagents) and payment structures for academic and nonacademic staffs.

HUNGER AND MALNUTRITION:

In Kosha, Ihugh town, Vandeikya L.G.A, Benue state, children work tirelessly and round the clock especially during planting and harvest seasons to be able to meet time, food needs and make usually little income to settle for their school fees/dues, house rents(for students), feeding, clothing, transportation and other family needs and wants.

It used to be quite unfortunate for them as most times, they barely make enough money to settle all or even few of their several needs making it almost impossible to access balanced diet. However, it calls on concerned government and community officials to become responsible, strategize and put in place needed policies to tackle these problems from the root to the branches to at least mitigate its negative impacts on the Children and give them a better future.

POLICIES AND STRATEGIES:

For every government and leader to be successful and achieve her goal and meet the people's need, then good policies are needed to play the tricks.However, policy makers should pay more attention to

1. Policies that will investigate causes of hard agricultural child labours, putting into cognisance their gender, age and educational levels.
2. Policies that will ensure a total free education from zero to secondary educational levels as this will reduce the need for children working hard to pay their feels and help them invest more time into academic activities.
3. Policies that will ensure school meal programs as this will possibly make available highly nutritious meals to the children on daily basis and go a long way in solving malnutrition in children resulting from the one type of meal(carbohydrates) consumed daily due to poverty.

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Dear colleagues,

Kasese district has a population of 694,987 and 139,406 house holds. 118,998 house holds are engaged in either crop growing or livestock farming. This is 85% of house holds. 70.7% depend on subsistence farming as main source of livelihood. 79,062 of children aged 10-17 are engaged in economic activities. (UBOS 2017).

Since majority of house holds depends on subsistence farming, the majority of children are working in family farms unpaid. Some Children work during class hours and they are engaged in the following activities land clearing, planting, irrigation, weeding, spraying, harvesting, processing, marketing, and nursery management. The working time per day is five hours. According to study by Paul Obua 2004, 48% of children working in Agriculture sector reported physical injuries

The Uganda Government has the National Plan for the elimination of worst form of child labour. It target to eliminate child labour which is hazardous and interferes with Education of the children. Most activities in Agriculture sector are hazardous and takes a lot of school time during planting and harvesting.

The government of Uganda is currently implementing NDP2 a holistic frame work for poverty eradication in Uganda. The plan is relevant to FNS under Agricultural sector strategy plan 2015/2020 and health sector development plan 2015/2020. The plans provides for food nutrition security, extension services and agricultural inputs.

I have never seen a study on how the Agricultural policies  and strategies have contributed to the end of child labour in Agricultural sector. However, my experience as a Labour officer indicate that the government policies in agriculture and other interventions like free primary and secondary education have led to increase in school enrollment.

UBOS 2017 reported that about 25000 children aged 6-15 years were not schooling. The majority of this children are engaged in Agricultural sector. Despite the government efforts of providing social protection in terms of agricultural inputs, extension services and free primary and secondary education.

Recommendations.

1. The provision of agricultural inputs should target the house holds affected by child labour.

2. The extension workers should integrate child labour issues on their extension services.

3. The labour officer should carry out joint field work with extension staff.

4. The government should sensitise about child labour in the local value chain of agricultural produce by sector.

5. The government should provide the labour officer with adequate facilitation to inspect small hold farms to find out whether they comply with employment of children laws and regulation.

Karafule Swaib

Senior Labour officer

Kasese/ Uganda.

As I have read through the responses I noted many of the responses recommend government policies or programs like education and school lunches. This lead me to wonder if the government has the financial resouces to fund the enforcement of policies or support suggested programs. I am inclined to think most host governments have a very limited tax base in which to generate the revenue to implement such program. To taxes no services. In this case aren't most of these policies and program an expression of good intentions rather than an effective intervention. I appreciate the good intentions but I wish more could be done.

Please review the following webpages: 

https://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/financially-suppress… : 

https://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/financially-stalled-…

Also the emphasis on policies and programs assumes that the use of child labor is fully discretionary and explotive of the children. However, as I mentioned in my previous comment in most cases i assume relying on child labor is essential to minimize food insecurity and most urgent need is to reduce the drudgery in smallholder production so child labor is not required as most parents would much prefer their children were in school so they develop an opportunity for a better life.

In order to end child labour in agriculture, we need to examine the cause of it. Two major causes are identified they are: lack of educational centers and cheap labourers. In the absence of educational centers  in rural areas children are drafted into family farming to keep them busy. Likewise, many farmers engage their wives and children as labourers in their farm; they provide cheap agricultural labour. Therefore, policies and strategies that will end child labour in agriculture among other things should focus on:

1. Rural educational policy that will be effective, efficient and available for all rural children
2. Agricultural mechanisation policy that will provide cheap labour for all agricultural production