Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Dear all, 

Please find the attached submission regarding CARE's integrated approach to tackle the incidence of child labor in the agri-food sector, at the household,community, and market levels. Thank you. 

Best regards, 

Frantz Seide

 Small Holder Farmers burden in tackling child labour in rural farming Communities.

1.0 Introduction

While 152 Million   children aged 5 to 17 years are in child labour, 70 % of these work in agriculture due to the laborious nature of the sector, low technology development for some farming communities and also the social norms of the community set many of the small holder farmers are. In the recent survey, 3 out of 10 children (29%) were engaged in hazardous work, or worked for longer hours, while the child labour cases on farm arose to 18% still indicating high cases in the agricultural sector (UBOS 2021).

Since the last 15 years I have been working with Small Holder Farmers in the different parts of the country, mostly in the rural farming set up in crop, animal, and the several general activities of the farmers. It is possible that more that 80% of the Small Holder farmers I have engaged with before have very little or no knowledge of the challenges associated with child labour, and also less information about children rights.

As the global efforts and momentum in eliminating child labour is getting warm,  through the efforts through  international year of elimination of Child labor , we need to focus on the rural and farming  communities getting to understand the dangers of child labour, and its implication on the social - economic development since we cannot engage and solve what the farmers  do not understand fully, unless the small holder farmers understand the magnitude of the problem, they will minimally support the efforts of ending child labour especially the 70% children that are still marred in practice- child labour  in agriculture.

Child labour being the work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential, and their dignity, and more so that harms children mentally, physically, socially and morally (ILO 2021) most cases, the enforcers in the developing countries have little or no knowledge at all on the challenges of child labour and sometimes the laws that protect children from such dangerous practices associated with. If law makers and enforcers have good prior knowledge on the proper goals and understanding its implication, and the goals of ending child labour would make a good combination of support for the rural communities in following up children that are imprisoned in the child labour practices.

More so majority of the children lack awareness on their rights in regard to protection from child labour, mostly some of them feel not comfortable but lack awareness on the provision the legal instruments  that would move in to stand for the truth of what they know to be able to enjoy their rights.

Truly we commend the government of Uganda that has established several law reforms to promote the rights of children like ending child labour through laws like the Employment Act 2006 that introduced an offence in relating to child labour,  for children under 12 years, but light labour  for children under 14 years. More so proposals to amend Children’s Act have also been made to specify and end hazardous work and child labour. This is an indication that we have some good legal reforms to protect children however there are some gaps in its knowledge by the communities, enforcers and the general implementation process. Therefore actions geared to sensitise the communities about the possible dangers of child labour and more so the legal provisions in child labour would be some of the good steps in ending child labour.

Whereas child labour is more pronounced in agricultural sector, majority of the workers in the sector that is mainly informal in operations of farm work, which and when makes it difficult to map the compliance, enforcement and follow-up on the child labour cases.

In reality most of the developing and middle income countries have several challenges they are grappling with which make the point of emphasizing ending child labour not a top priority in enforcement and implementation of laws, policies, and frameworks aimed at ending child labour. For example if we talk about issues of natural calamities, famine, wars, COVID 19 it is matter of life and death that the several governments are considering and thus ending child labour may appear not first priority. In countries where there is increase in crime, like defilement, rape, trafficking of children, and other deeper seemingly urgent challenges than the cases in relation to child labour may not easily attract a lot of urgency as it deserves.

2.0 Background

While the year 2020 was a year full of many calamities in Ugandan agriculture sector, full of rise in water levels on the lake Victoria, COVID 19 outbreak that pushed several families into poverty, floods in some parts of the country, and locust invasion, it increased a lot of pressure on the small holder farmers who were pushed to the wall on accessing critical farm inputs like labor, seeds, finance and markets as ideally should have been. This did not leave the farm workers the same, and the farm worker pressure could have amounted than ever before with the changes and waves of challenges that had toll on the sector.

In the recent survey conducted by Uganda National Bureau of Statistics, Child labour cases in the country increased by 26% in the two districts of Hoima and Kikube  – 74,000 children  (UBOS 2021). This is much higher than 15% as of 20/17 national labour survey that was 15%. When house hold chores were added, it rose to 31% increase in child labour cases in the mentioned Districts. This indeed is very alarming and needs urgent attention from the government, farming households, development partners and more.

While the COVID 19 outbreak restrictions and SOP enforcement came into play, majority of the children were confined in particular villages as confined for more than previously when they are engaged in school and other education related activities. The 1st lock down that called for schools to close 18th March 2020 until June 2021 that has culminated added into a second lock down before some of the learners could attend school has  forced many of them to stay with limited alternatives other than attend to the agricultural work with their families and communities which they live in that has pushed several of the numbers of child labour higher that the usual.

In most local communities the children still belong to a bigger communities not only to their families and sometimes the extended families that have more members that attract a lot of work  the children could be exposed to both domestic and farm activities. For example rearing animals for more than one family, fetching water, clearing land and many more beyond the demands in the families where they have always been contributing to family labour.

Uganda’s agricultural sector is mainly characterized by Small Holder Farmers comprising of 75% of the agricultural  workers, who are mainly aging on average 54 years and may not easily contribute effectively to the laborious nature of agriculture that require a lot of energy in contributing to farm labour.  And the few young people that are still working in the agricultural sector are there because they haven’t found better opportunities with limited concentration on supporting the farm activities.  For example , nearly 76% of the farmers aged 15 - 29 years currently working in agriculture would leave the carrier  for a better work opportunities elsewhere, thus leaving a gap in provision of farm labour. The increase in the aging population on farm has pulled a lot on increase in the demand for labour on the farm that could easily be topped with  child labour.

While Uganda is favorable for wide range of agricultural production enterprises, the  National Development Plan III (2020-2025) with agro industrialization agenda has priotised 9 major  enterprises for the transformation of the Uganda economy. In order to realize agro industrialization agenda in the country, the programme has selected majorly this nine commodities including coffee, tea, fisheries, cotton, vegetable oil, beef by- products, maize and dairy because of their impact on exports earnings. This in itself exerts pressure on the agricultural sector which has to provide solutions to food security, increase in export earnings and also the raw materials for the agro related industries as suggested by the development plan.

The national Development Plan III is a clear reflection that the engine of growth for the economy will  be mainly agriculture in the coming 5 years. The pressure and demands of the agriculture sector is most likely going to double if we are to realize the targets of the development plan 2020- 2025. If there is no deliberate action to pay attention to eliminating  child labour on agricultural farms it is at this time that the government of Uganda pays keen attention to social and economic development factors of growth with clearer strategies of ending child labour in Uganda.

3.0 Situation  analysis.

Majority of these Small Holder Farmers are still struggling to break through from subsistence to commercial farming that still has a smaller percentage of the farming fraternity. The social construct in the rural farming communities composed mainly of Small Holder Farmers has for some time posed difficulty in accessing finances, critical inputs, labor on farm and are faced with several pests and diseases which have limited them to break even with several alternatives on their farms other than use of available labour in their communities that has culminated into many cases of child labour in the country and other developing economies.

In most of the farming rural communities, the agricultural activities are labour intensive and require a lot of support from the majority of the community members including child workers. This has further created more room for the child labour on farm in relation to the huge demand of labour by the agricultural activities of the small Holder farmers.

Socially the children belong not only to one family but also to the bigger surrounding community composed of several other families which emphasizes some obligations   especially in helping on both domestic and farm labour supply. Since majority of the aging population is embedded in our grass root farming system, most often they require support on farm and house hold labour which any of the several child in the community has an obligation to support the bulging work activities that demand effort of the children and sometimes denies them an opportunity to enjoy their rights as children.

 This in actual sense is combined with mentorship into working labour but to greater extent it is intertwined with child labour since most of the times children engaged in this community work for long, miss out on their education, some do not find time to play and enjoy other rights as children deserve. It would be easier to regulate cases of child labour well known by the homesteads they reside in, however since there are many stakeholders that engage these children in extra and excessive work, it is a little difficult to have them regulated.

I would not say that this should totally stop, since it supports the livelihood of some of the farming communities that without out such support, some would not get a chance of reaching the next day but I believe if well regulated and monitored the mentorship into work for the children would blend better with minimum violation of the children rights in their involvement in child labour.

While the infrastructure that support farm lands in most rural areas are not fully developed some times it is difficult to apply better techniques in farming, for example some productive farm lands in several communities are located in wetlands that have a poor road infrastructure and thus reaching out to harvesting, majorly manual labour is suitable, and manual transportation which in tandem demands excessive labour that encroaches on the child labourers to fill up the labour deficit created by lack of efficient technology on farm.

Agricultural activities are not the only vessels demanding the big magnitudes of child labour, however also domestic gender oriented roles have taken toll of draining children on their rights. For example in several rural farming communities, when the mother in a home is attending to the farm, it is usually a responsibility of the younger girls to tend the babies in a home, cook, fetch firewood to supplement the labour of their mothers in a home stead. This in most cases have also denied some of the young female children to attend fully they school, engage with other children in enjoying their child hood games and other privileges.

This usually has been more vigorous in some particular seasons like planting seasons, land clearing, weeding, harvesting which mostly are more labour intensive than other activities than other farm activities and more so they are time bound. Below are some of the quick reasons that child labour has persisted in the agricultural farm activities.

We cannot eliminate child labour in the agriculture sector with ease especially in the set up of the small Holder Environment if we do not know where it starts or  ends.

4.0 Why has child labour in agriculture persisted?

Structure of agricultural value chain activities

While looking into the different, urgent and labour intensive activities on the farm, it is important to note that sometimes it is hard for some Small Holder and emerging farms cannot easily do away with child labour in reality, even when policy directs.

The following are some of the major activities on the farm that require urgent attention of the youth, elderly, children that if they do not activitly support the food systems, food security, and other demands of food production would  collapse thus ending in the child labour increase.

1. Limited access to   financial resources

There is increasingly limited agricultural financing to help improve subsistence to commercial agricultural in farming systems. Most of the emerging small Holder farmers have limited finances and as a key factor of production to help them access the decent farm labour as may be required from time to time. The labour on the farm involving land clearing, planting, weeding, harvesting, transportation and other activities which is not easy to cope with its demand if finances to pay for labour on the farm. Due to the labour intensive nature of most of these farms, the finances to pay for required labour are not readily available and thus may end into accessing the cheapest labour available through Child labour.

Recommendation

Government and partners could consider supporting Small Holder Farmers with labour saving technologies to like tractors, planters, weeding equipment, driers that require less labour than manual that has sought more demand for child labourers.

Farmers could learn from best practices and home grown approaches like Village Savings and Loans Associations to be able to access the funds to help them in the activities of the value chain as they require different form of labour.

More so opportunities like pool of digging cooperatives if well organized could plan and support one another in the different demands of farm labour. This has worked sustainably for some communities with some group of people combining into a labour gang that concentrates on one farm to clear the land, and next day to another farm which in the end provides a sooth in the quench for child laborers.

1. Poor and undeveloped technology on some farms:

Majority of the smaller farmers still use some tools that add laborious nature of farm activities.  95.8% use hoes on their farm UBOS (2010) and less than 10% of the farms have mechanized, due to high costs of farm inputs that the farmers can barely afford thus leaving farmers to still utilize the rudimentary tools of pangas, hoes, cycles, and more to clear the land plant, prunning and do several activities on the farm. Due to the use of rudimentary tools on the farm the demand, there is a lot of inefficiency at some point in achieving some farm targets in terms of  labour which is sometimes too overwhelming that some farmers end up in soliciting for child labor to fill the gap.

Recommendations:

The private sector investors could look at producing the farm equipment for clearing, planters, weeding, and harvesting that are less costly especially for the farmers through affordability.

Governments could establish strategies and policies that look into subsidizing the farm equipment to make it affordable for the farmers in order to reduce the intensity of labour demand on farm that sometimes tempts several of them to look around for labour back through child labour.

Financiers and Finance institutions should deliberately consider approaches of financing and finance products that enable the   farmers  to  accessing agricultural equipment through shared costs to reduce on the ever increasing burden of farm labour.

1. Poor agricultural practices and technology employed on farm

Poor agricultural practices and technology including among others  like using mouth planting, broad casting seed, lack of proper weed control,  and other agricultural practices consistently generate a lot of the demand for labour which makes work difficult with agriculture and increase demand for labour on the farm. This also attracted to some extent child labour solicit to fill the labour deficit on the farm.

Recommendation

Proper and efficient agriculture extension services should be extended to the farmers to enable them use good agricultural practices that would reduce on the hustling with increased demand for labour that is a result of poor agricultural practices. Both governments, private sector extension services could combine efforts of reaching out to guide the farmers on properly managing their farms with efficiency that would enable them smoothly use labour intensive techniques  may not end in demand for extra labour attracted through child labourers.

1. Lack of school requirements

In some cases some children are not in school because of lack of scholastic requirements in the rural areas  thus they are available to provide farm labour when “an opportunity” arrises. Attending school has several school requirements like school fees, uniforms, books, pens and other scholastic materials that which and when they do not have they are regularly chased from school with no other option other that providing labour – child labour since they have no other alternatives. Majority of the householders are still faced with challenges of poverty with lack of ability to meet basic needs for their homes.

While most of the scholastic materials required for a child to be at school seems not very costly on average at about 50 dollars in the rural areas, more than 41% of the population live on less than 2 dollars per day (Opportunity International 2020). When the ends do not meet in other basic needs, education – the basic right of children is shelved and pushes the majority of the children to attend to other available opportunities on farm through providing labour for the livelihood.

Recommendation:

There is need to subsidize education services for the children to enable attainment of basic education level to reduce on the increasing margins of income inequality, and achievements  on of the Sustainable Development Goals. If children are not provided with alternatives of basic education attainment at such level they will be involved even in the worst forms of   child labour  and vicious circle of poverty that attracts “seasonal and  generational” forms of child labour.

1. Mindset , training and education background of the parents and care takers:

Majority of the parents and care takers still have no clarity of the challenges associated with child labour and as a result they have not taken any of the serious initiatives to help redeem children out of the monster of the child labour. For many years the perception of agriculture in rural areas has been one of working hard and earning less, which discourages the young people who have seen their parents struggling and the livelihoods of their parents have largely remained unchanged. Thus attracting labour for the young energetic may not be easy. As a result some parents also force their children to look for survival through labour by themselves since they would find nothing much to loose through the initiative. Some parents have always been caught in the idealogies of considering themselves heroes through child labour, while the others in conversations like “did I die when I did not go to school” , aren’t they people that do not go to school “ which has continually denied children a chance of several other alternatives of living their dream other than child labour.

Recommendation

Continuous sensitization of the parents   and local communities on the rights of children and the dangers of child labour would help the parents give up on facilitating platforms that increase chances of child labour.

Exposure visits, and scenarios would help some of the parents learn more about the opportunities of proper parental guidance that cubs down the hunger of using child labour for short term benefits.

1. Increased challenges paused by climate changes

Agriculture sector is mainly rain fed up to more than 85%, which is affected by the current weather changes that have become un predictable. When there are no rains, children are the major source of labour to fetch water for farm work, like watering crops, watering animals, and even house hold chores. Traditionally in most of the rural set communities, fetching water  communally understood to be the job of children which sometimes overrides their rights and benefits as children. The pressure caused by unreliable weather conditions have made it  hard for the some children to escape the routine responsibility which at the end has pushed them sometimes to miss school especially in the dry seasons, for them to fetch water, move with animals for longer distances in search of good pastures, and water for animals.

Recommendation

Affordable water harvesting technology and irrigation systems could be extended to the farmers and and several struggling households as to offer a better alternative for replacing  the child labour related activities in the growing of crops and animals.

1. Seasonality of some cropping seasons.

In several cropping systems like at weeding season in most agricultural communities the children do not go to school instead they offer labour to the farms since there are limited   alternatives of labour. This is more common in the cereals like rice, millet, sorghum, beans, not only in weeding but also harvesting.

Managing pests and birds to help in chasing pests in the pre-harvest to ensure that the crop is not lost to the pests and wilder eaters. This is predominantly a job for the children, to chase for animals and eaters of the harvest.

Recommendation.

Robust sensitization of the communities on the implications of child labour in the long and short term would help them think of the better on the other innovative options to fill up the labour demands.

1. Limited  alternatives on required hazardous activities on farm.

In tropical Africa, there has been an increase in pests and diseases because of one  reason or another which has caused a lot of demand to deal with them through spraying with pesticides. In some communities, children have been gazetted to do this work since sometimes they are ignorant about dangers of application of pesticides, fungicides accaricides. Spraying is done by the children because of its risky nature they are not aware about; mainly children can offer this service, which they have sometimes done professionally, no clear procedures like praying not against the wind, when they lack personal  protection . More so the adult workers demand for more money for such jobs which some farmers may not break if utilised thus end up using child labour.

Recommendation

Monitors, enforcers and other compliance in charge should look out for such hazardous engagement with children by the culprits that need to be criminalized. It is unfortunate though that some parents send their children on such assignments on farm with ignorance of the  would be impact from the children applying dangerous agro chemicals with still the majority of the parents and /or children that cannot read and apply with the instructions and guide to chemical application.

Professional spray men with adequate knowledge on the application could be made available and accessible to offer such support to the farmers that require this instead of the children. This has been used before though not scaled up to different regions for replication though successful.

Agricultural extension workers need to get closer to the farmers to offer guidance and support on proper handling and use of pesticides.

1. Laborious nature of harvesting

Agriculture activities generally as earlier mentioned are labour intensive but there are also some crops and enterprises that require more labour than others in particular phases of their growth. Such crops include mainly cereals like millet, wheat, rice, sorghum that usually require strict way and timing of planting, weeding, harvesting, and drying. In some cases, one has to harvest for example like 10-15  acres within one week manually , that requires urgent labour on harvesting with limited tools which situation could has been encountered with mainly child labour that they opt for  since they are usually cheaper.

More so   in some scenarios of like such type of crops including  rice, millet, sorghum they attract several pests like birds, monkeys, that mostly may cause a lot of losses on the garden. In such seasons like these, the farmers have always given the job of guarding the crop to children who miss out on school, timely meals and other children benefits while attending to the crop to protect them from the un planned wild eaters.

Recommendation

Affordable harvesting equipment could be availed to the farmers to ease on the laborious nature of the harvesting.

Innovations of scare crows and technologies to replace the child labour, could offer solutions and alternatives on the farm to reduce on the pest monitoring activities by the children.

1. Difficulty of Transportation

Usually on local farms of the Smaller Holder Farmers, there have been consistent challenges of transportation of the produce from the garden to the home, drying areas and sometimes to the markets. Since majority of the farms are owned and managed by the elderly, it is still difficult for them to transport such produce from one area to another manually. For example carrying a 60Kg bag from one place to another on the head or sometimes bicycles since the community access roads are not readily available to work for them. It is at this point that majority of the farmers utilize the child laborers to offer labour on the farm. In most cases, such good harvests grow better in prime lands, surrounded by shrubs and bushes and sometimes are in wetlands where the alternative source of labour for transport could be obtained from and physical /manual transportation that sometimes is got from the cheaper alternatives like child labour.

Recommendation

Government and partners should support the establishment of farm and community access roads (feeder roads) to help connect with relevant transporting servicers nearer to the farmer to reduce on the intensity of labour demands.

Government could help the farmer’s access better motorcycles, tricycles and vans to transport their produce from one area to another to help ease the nature of transport that attracts the farmers.

1. Small Holder Farmers mostly have no proper storage, driers and general post harvest equipment. This has had pressures on the majority of the farmers who have to struggle and innovate proper drying grounds for their crop especially cereals that require consistent drying demand if proper quality is to be realized. At some point the farmers have also to dry only when there is sunshine or proper heat conditions from the natural weather and when the weather changes, there is need for the capacity to rush and withdraw the produce from harsh weather. In the nature such work,  is mainly the youth and children that still have the capacity to support  such activities. This amounts also pressure on some farmers in some seasons to hook child labour to transition them in this process that requires almost 12 hour monitoring and labour reinforcement.

Recommendation

Farmers could be supported with establishment of recommended and efficient drying areas that could help in saving the farmers the hustle of running up and down for some emergency situation.

Modern equipment and storage facilities could be extended to the farmers to help them maintain good quality of the produce to fetch better prices but also reduce on the hustle of finding labour among the child workers.

1. Marketing of agricultural produce is not organized and structured to help so need a lot of attention from the watchers of the markets and transporters to the markets which sometimes are weekly or monthly.  While in such markets, it is also probability ahalf to sell or not sell demanding on the demands of the market. It they buy from the market it is the best but if they do not buy all it is a requirement that such produce is taken back home which these children provide labour in on the bicycles of head.  

Recommendation

Collective bulking and bargaining is one of the key tools and approaches that could organize farmers for the proper and organized markets, that would reduce the burden on the children and allow them to concrete on the matters that concern them or even would attract better moneys from the sales that would provide the farmers with several alternatives of finances for them to match their increasing needs on farm other than child labour.

It is very key to note as previously mentioned that child labour has not been only in the crop but also in animal enterprises like poultry, piggery, dairy. In these enterprises they are also considered high value enterprises and so they always call for urgent attention on the labour supply that has engulfed the children on several occasions to give in to child labour..

In poultry, most of the times children have been involved in the  construction of chicken, rabbit, houses,  with affordable materials though risky for children to find such materials eg going to the forests to cut poles for construction, the child may be bitten by snakes, may get serious injuries, that may affect the future of such children.

This is also coupled with activities such as  preparing to receive chicks of a day old is another activity that may from time to time require a lot of labour in preparing husks and the entire houses of the chicken, local heating system which the heat has to be rotated round the poultry houses to reach all the chicks which sometimes is done in the middle of the cold night. This mostly is the job of the children on the farm to follow up that sometimes denies them some time a chance to acquire good sleep and rest.

Feeding the chicken is also quite some good amount of work   that mostly is found of being provided by children. Feeding the animals require children move some distance to look for green leafy vegetables that sometimes are not in the safe environments which could also expose them to some bigger risks that may end their lives or get exposed to harmful activities on the farm forever.

Livestock care activities  including cows, sheep ,  goats and more is one of the other common activities that have consistently attracted the urgent need of children. In some regions like Karamoja where there is nomadic pastoralism, it is the children aged between 7-15 that move with the animals from one place to another in search of good pasture, and water for the animals. As a result such children are found of moving more 15 to 70  kilometers from the homes in such of  the above which sometimes has caused them to be victims of cattle raids that sometimes has injured them or even ended their lives because of lack of proper decision making in case of the attacks away  from home.

While children attend to such in their communities there is minimum time for them to attend school and other child development activities which has not allowed a hoped better future.

More so, away from the nomadic pasoralism, there are some gazetted responsibilities of children in dairy that they have to fulfil especially activities like watering animals which sometimes the children may fall in the unprotected water wells,  milking, transporting milk, chasing flies insects that interfere with milking activities and several other curtails of activities. Children sometimes   are charged with the responsibility of cleaning the animal houses regularly which is hazardous in most cases if not well protected with PPE at the time of engagement in the cleaning activities.

There are also some other activities such as hawking of milk for smaller farms especially farms  that produce like less than 15 Liters of milk who are the majority that may not easily qualify for the opportunities from milk collection centre. This milk cannot be taken by any other a  parties with ease from the children through door to door sales. Transporting milk to the milk collection centers is another urgent   job mainly for children mostly on bicycles or on the head carrying.

There are mainly other activities like the sell for the animals in the weekly/monthly  markets which require the children and farmers  to walk several miles, which and when not sold they have to be taken back home of 10 -15 kilometers from the home another risk affecting children not only on child labor, and their lives at risk.

5.0 Key lessons learnt

Technology advancement on farm could reduce on the laborious nature of farm activities and this would reduce on child labour increasing cases in the agriculture sector.

Follow up on the improvement of agronomic practices such as mulching and other climate smart agricultural activities that could facilitate proper growth and management of crop and limited infestation pests and disease, which will reduce on the child labour.

Professional spray men could be interested and more to support the work of the Small Holder Farmers in the value chain activities which would be key in elimination of hazardous practices in   the child labour  from some activities such as the weeding and spraying activities.

Collective bargaining could be facilitated and emphasized among the small Holder farmers to help the farmers tap into better and organized markets that would offer facilities like transport, storage and better prices to help them get proper access to the required financing.

There should be deliberate efforts by financial service providers to come to the rescue of the small holder farmers to reduce on the pressure amounting from limited finances on the farm that will in tandem contribute to elimination of child labour.

Provision of affordable and accessible extension services is key  in helping to guide the farmers on proper and professional   methods of work on farm.

Provision of good quality inputs would provide better returns on the farmers’ outputs that can also raise and save money to hire labour, relevant, or other PPEs to help on farm.

Building the capacity of farmers in financial literacy, like savings practices, debt management, record keeping insurance would help the farmers move an extra mile in manage the agricultural related risks that have been attracting the use of child labour.

Facilitating innovation on farms like in areas of value addition would attract recycling and interdependence on integrated farm systems the farm activities like maize, for maize brands, or cotton seed cake for animals, manure to the crop farms coffee husks for the animal houses which would ease work on the farm.

There is need to establish emergency funds to support farmers in the areas where there is total loss of crops or animals for example floods, drought, epidemics and crop diseases to shield the shock of the farmers whenever they it may be hard for them to cope.

6.0 Conclusion

Most of the activities they do on farm is educative in nature in helping them continue farming, and develop alternative livelihood in future, from taking on from their parents, however most of the young labourers lack protection like Personal Protection Equipment (PPE), gums boots, overalls, gloves, glasses on spreading, protection from cold weather   when spraying, face masks, huts when on tough weather, protected wells, on watering animals.

If the environment of operation for these children, regulated and monitored by responsible persons, it is a good foundation to build on and transmission the younger farmers into the other responsible young famers to transform the communication. The year of elimination of child labour is not enough could be organized interventions and activities of  in a decade of family farming.

It is also key to note that relevant approaches like technological advancement, sensitization of the agricultural sector stakeholder, collective bargaining, enforcement and compliance to set laws and guidelines would deliver us an extra mile in eliminating child labour in agriculture.

We believe a international year of elimination of child labour 2021 is not enough in helping us realize the desired results instead  adding years up even to the a decade focusing on elimination of child labour would support the situation and  enable us deliver on the recommendations geared towards elimination of child labour.

Above all income security  for small holder farmers is paramount to quicken elimination of child labour in combination of other strategies of course since most of the factors for its persistence are poverty related among the smaller holder farms.

Message from the facilitator

Dear participants, the new ILO-UNICEF Global Estimates on Child Labour have been released. With four years left before the 2025 deadline for achieving SDG 8.7, numbers are alarming. In early 2020, 112 million child labourers were found in agriculture, marking an increase of 4 million since 2016. In relative terms, the agricultural sector is still accounting for more than 70% of all child labour. In addition, a new analysis suggests that a further 8.9 million children will be in child labour by the end of 2022 as a result of rising poverty driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. To put action to end child labour on track, we urgently need a breakthrough in agriculture. All agricultural actors can make a difference. Join our efforts and share with us your thoughts by Monday!

Dear Sir/Madam,

This is in reference to “Call for action: ending child labour in agriculture with the help of agricultural stakeholders”.

Please find enclosed a submission from our organization.

Kind Regards

Ghaffar Paras (Deputy Programme Manager)

Monitoring, Evaluation and Research; National Rural Support Programme

Child labor under the age of 17 is one of the most significant problems in the agricultural sector in Iraq, and one of the most important causes this problem is the poor financial situation of families who live in the countryside and the lack of job opportunities. Therefore, these families employ their children in agricultural work. The reluctance to go to schools to receive education, despite the fact that education is free in Iraq in public schools, so poor families cannot send their children to schools, as most children work in the field of clearing weeds in agricultural lands, harvesting, grazing animals and marketing agricultural products, whether animal or vegetable, which exposes them to many risks and thus not exercise their rights as children.



The most important right is to receive education in the right way which will benefit them in the future. Unfortunately, although education is free in Iraq, there are some obstacles for children to go to school, including the small number of schools in rural areas and the distance and unpaved roads that make it difficult for children to reach schools, especially in rainy days, as well as schools are small and unqualified to accommodate a large number of students, forcing some students to leave education and go to work in agriculture helping their families in making a living, as well as the lack of financial support for poor families by the government to meet their needs, so these families needed child labor.



Child labor has increased considering the Corona 19 COVID pandemic, the interruption of attendance and the trend for e-learning, which some students and their families are ignorant of.



It is necessary to put some proposals to find solutions to get rid of this difficult problem, even if the solution requires a long time, but it is necessary to try working for these children to enjoy their most basic rights, which is education and a decent living. Governments must establish laws regarding child labor under the age of 17 years for both males and females, and help and support poor families financially to stop child labor and make sure  that their children are sent to schools to receive education. Governments should also raise awareness among rural families in terms of the importance of their children to continue to receive education because of its importance in improving their lives in the future. At the same time, they should provide them with information about occupational safety and health and what are the appropriate tasks for children that they can perform at any age and inform them of the risks that children face during their work. Furthermore, they should support food prices for these families and build a number of schools or rehabilitate existing schools and provide them with teaching staff while providing the necessary study supplies free of charge and paving the roads leading to schools are also important, as well as taking advantage of the summer vacation by engaging them in educational courses to develop their abilities, including teaching children. Using the computer in e-learning and other applications after equipping them with it and sewing courses for girls and other cottage industries in return for material wages, even if they are few, to motivate them to participate in such important courses, as well as paying attention to agricultural marketing operations, both plants and animals, to facilitate the families working in marketing bossiness helping them marketing products to local markets and give up the need employ their children.



The United Nations organizations, the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization must play an important and effective role in assisting low-income countries in the proposed solutions that were referred to in order to achieve the desired goals in reducing or eliminating the phenomenon of child labor and advancing their human and social rights.

Dear Sir/ Madam,

Regards the subject, attached is my contribution on ending child labour in agriculture with the help of agricultural stakeholders.

Yours,

Kibaya Robert

Executive Director/ Founder 

Kikandwa Rural Communities Development Organization

Ending Child Labour in Agriculture with the Help of Agricultural Stakeholders

Childhood, simply the stage between birth and puberty, is not the condition of well developed physically as well as mentally. They are physically weak with developing the organs of their bodies slowly. The fragile organs are not ready to perform the hard works inside or outside of the home. On the other hand the stage of childhood is inclined to playing and entertaining with their parents, friends or with their kin. They want to enjoy in playing the games that give good results ultimately for the overall development of the children. Accordingly, doing formal study in the pedagogies or in the homes according to the ages is another task of the children.   

With this background of the childhood it has to be justified to eliminate the child labour from the agriculture sector at this moment. Actually, the authorized agencies are trying to prohibit or to ending the involvement of the child from any sector may be agriculture, industry, transportation, or even the sexualities. In this regard, agriculture is one of the highly sensitive sector where the possibilities of child labour seems to be high. They have been mobilised in this sector voluntarily as well as obligatorily too.  It could be happened actually due to three reasons. The first one is - by voluntarily where the family members do not deny the involvement of the children in the pretext of enjoying by their children in the agricultural activities together with them. The second one is that the family members automatically mobilized their children in agriculture farming because of lacking of needed labourers for the work. The third one is that child labour is comparatively cheaper than the labour of the seniors may be man or woman.  It should not be paid full wages to them as paid to their seniors including fathers / mothers. Therefore, the community people or any other organizations / companies want to mobilize the children in some soft type of activities which could be performed by them without hard labour.

Now we have to identify the actual stakeholders of the agriculture before going to discuss about their roles regarding the child labour. First of all family members or the households are the prime stakeholders of agriculture followed by neighbouring / farmers, private or public organizations / companies (food producing / supplier, distributors, and marketing of the products ), NGOs/ CBOs,  political parties, and the government formed at different levels depending upon the country.

Following measures are recommended to eliminate or to ending the child labour with the help of those stakeholders of the agriculture as mentioned above:

1. Government: The ruling government has hole sole authority for execution of law and order in the country. It can address the issues of child labour in the process of ending it from the country. In this respect the government, in coordination with other stakeholders of the country, has to incorporate the provision of ending of child labour in the constitution or acts of the country, and to be implemented the rule and regulations regarding the child labour accordingly.

2. Political parties: Political parties and the parliamentarians are considered as the stakeholders of the agriculture sector since they can make the plan and policy of the country as per the needs of the people.  Hence, they can support to prepare the plan and policy about the ending of the child labour of the country with a consensus among the political parties / parliamentarians / government and none government agencies, and any other sectors as needed.

3. Private and Public Organizations /Companies: It should be prohibited for the participation of the children as the labourers in the private or public companies involved in the process of farming of the crops, or producing different types of foods with the purpose of marketing. Eventually, they want to hire more and more children for some soft type of activities in the companies because of low rate of wages for the children. It is recommended to stop the deployment of children in such organizations or companies by the authorized agencies of the country.

4. NGOs / CBOs: The non government or community based organizations working in agriculture sector should be very conscious of child labour. Therefore, they should ask and follow up of their clients / stakeholders for not accepting the child labour in their works.

5. Neighbouring / Relatives: There is high possibilities of involvement of the children in agricultural works mobilizing by the neighbours or relatives who are very close to the households specially in the rural areas of developing countries from Asia and Africa. It could be happened due to two reasons. The first one is that some of the children do not go to school because of lacking of money with their guardians. So the children are spending their days in vain in the households. The second one is that the children are not allowed to go to school in the pretext of caring of the children as well as of the livestock in the households. Therefore, the neighbours or the relatives request to the households to send their children specially at the time of cultivation as well as harvesting or even at the time of weeding of the crops.

Therefore, it is recommended to make aware to the households about the drawbacks of the child labour. Accordingly, there should be established a common understanding among  the households and neighbours for not mobilizing the children in agricultural jobs.  

Besides, the other important recommendation is that there should be applied the  practice of exchanging of labour (known as Parma in Nepali ) at the time of farming  from one household to another household in the settlement which is very popular in some parts of Nepal.

6. Family / Household: Actually the child labour is originated from the family / households. They do not allow their children to go to schools rather send to the jobs either in agriculture farming or in any other jobs to earn money for their subsistence. It is a very miserable fact that thousands of families / households do not have money to send to the children in the schools. In this respect, ending of the child labour has become only publicity for the policy makers or for the researchers. The agriculture sector including the livestock is considered as one of the highest sectors of exploitation of the children in various countries mainly in the third world.

To address the alarming situation of such households in respect of child labour it is recommended to provide some incentives by the government to the households having the potential children for labour works. They can be awarded by cash, or kinds like school dress, books and copies or even to provide some material supports to those parents who send their children to the school. In this respect, cash transfer is one of the supportive tools for ending the child labour.

The Centre for Child Rights and Business has worked for more than 10 years on preventing and remediating child labour in global supply chains, including agriculture. Our submission highlights recent work we have been carrying out together with Save the Children Germany in hazelnut and rose gardens in Turkey. Our submission focus on how we work with local stakeholders such as farm owners, intermediaries and other suppliers to create low-cost sustainable and scalable practical solutions to prevent child labour in agriculture. We’d be pleased to showcase and share our approach and impact during your regional consultations and at your Global Event in September 2021. We look forward to your feedback and any questions you may have.

MGCY INPUTS TO Call for action: ending child labour in agriculture with the help of agricultural stakeholders

As mentioned in the background note, addressing child labour in agriculture and in rural areas requires a multi-sectoral approach. Although child labour exists in agricultural plantations as well as more formal rural employment arrangements, a large percentage can be found within informal employment arrangements and within family based agriculture. Therefore, the nature of support to address the issue should look into its root push and pull causes. More often than not, the root causes in agriculture stem from household poverty along with the lack of awareness of the problem. Support to rural households in addressing their economic dependence on their children’s labour is essential. Support in the form of social protection can assist families with this dependency. Moreover, interventions should seek to support the livelihoods of marginalized famers who are vulnerable to the economic dependence of child labour.  

FAO has the ability to support livelihoods through numerous mechanisms. This includes social protection (school feeding, cash transfers, access to insurance and other financial services), various employment initiatives (support towards entrepreneurial agri-business or public employment programmes), support towards the organization (including expansion of membership) and strengthening of producer based organizations (for example, through the Forest and Farm Facility) along with additional capacity development opportunities to improve production, sustainability and diversify income opportunities. FAO can upscale these programmes and ensure that more vulnerable households are being targeted.

Awareness raising is also a key part of the puzzle. Many families and agriculture stakeholder are simply not aware of the dangers of child labour and tendency to perpetuate cycles of poverty. It can be seen as tradition or the norm. Of course, child labour can take many form. Children could are missing school to work (occasionally, seasonally or entirely) or we may refer a 15 year old who is spraying pesticides after school to make some extra pocket monkey for neighboring farmers. Nevertheless, supporting agriculture stakeholders of all kinds, and most importantly farming community members, on the importance of education for children in order to eventually effectively contribute towards rural livelihoods and sustainability along with information on occupational safety and health and what tasks are appropriate at which ages, remain crucial.

While working in rural Uganda (among several countries), FAO has supported capacity development for agriculture stakeholders, including through use of its Facilitator’s Guide ‘Protect Children from Pesticides!’. The tool has had a powerful impact at community level when school teachers began showing the tool to children and parents. Previously, farmers in the community were simply not aware of the risks related to pesticide use and had often involved older children in spraying activities. However, the tool had helped shift their mindset and thus practices. Therefore, awareness raising activities on the impact of child labour, including appropriate tasks for children on different ages, can be mainstreamed in larger FAO projects requiring limited resources but with an ability to scale important knowledge for sustainability and poverty reduction.

Many thanks,

Jessie