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This course illustrates how agricultural programmes can help to prevent and reduce child labour in agriculture. It provides guidance at each stage of the programme cycle when integrating child labour concerns in agricultural programmes. While the course is tailored to the information needs of these stakeholders, much of the content will also be highly relevant to others such as agricultural workers, employers and their organizations. The course consists of 2 lessons, ranging from approximately 45 to 60 minutes duration each: Lesson 1  Identify entry points in agricultural programmesLesson 2  Integrating child labour concerns in design and implementation

This course explains national and international legislation aimed at preventing and reducing child labour. It provides suggestions on how to assess whether a policy adequately addresses child labour in agriculture in your country. It also suggests opportunities within the development and implementation of a national rural development or agricultural policy where consideration of child labour concerns could make a difference. The course consists of 2 lessons, ranging from approximately 45 to 50 minutes duration each:     Lesson 1  Assessing policy against national child labour obligations Lesson 2  Identifying opportunities in agricultural policies

This course explains how to utilize, gather and analyse existing data on child labour in agriculture and identify information gaps. It also provides guidance on generating knowledge, providing an overview of data collection techniques, data processing instruments, and how data can be used more effectively to inform policies and programmes. The course consists of 2 lessons, ranging from approximately 35 to 55 minutes duration each:     Lesson 1  Available data and research Lesson 2  Generating knowledge through improved data collection

This course demonstrates how to carry out a stakeholder analysis to identify some of the relevant actors who can address child labour in farming, livestock, forestry and fisheries. It also provides suggestions on how to coordinate with these stakeholders in design, implementation and monitoring of initiatives that can contribute to the overall reduction of child labour in agriculture.  

This course gives an overview on the complexity of child labour in agriculture and aims to raise awareness on the importance and urgency of addressing the issue. It provides foundational knowledge to understand the topic and explores what is and what is not child labour, its causes and consequences, as well as the risks and the hazards children can face in agriculture. The course also offers preliminary suggestions on how agricultural stakeholders can address the issue in their work, encouraging learners to continue the course for more guidance.

More than 70 million young people are unemployed worldwide and 160 million young workers are living in poverty. Rural youth and women, in particular, face significant obstacles in obtaining quality education and training. Many depend on agriculture for their livelihoods and face severe constraints without access to land, credit or markets. FAO has designed an integrated country approach to work with governments to design youth-inclusive agri-food development policies. Through capacity building, entrepreneurial support and investment promotion, countries can increase job opportunities in the agri-food system, boosting youth employment and ensuring a high-quality agricultural workforce.

For centuries, fishing has been an activity of great importance for indigenous peoples. They inhabit and relate to water ecosystems, which conserve their cultural heritage, food sovereignty (the right to access healthy and culturally appropriate food) and in many cases are a main source of income. In Central America the situation is not different: today indigenous peoples live in more than 75% of the marine-coastal zones of the Caribbean Sea and extensive areas adjacent to continental waters and the Pacific Ocean, and have in fishing their main incomes. Precisely these areas present the highest indicators of poverty and malnutrition in [...]

While all pesticides can be dangerous when used inappropriately, highly hazardous pesticides are of particular concern due to the severe adverse effects they can cause to human health and the environment. With adequate investment in scaling-up existing and new ecological alternatives for pest control, pesticides that pose unacceptable risk to humans and the environment can be phased out from agriculture and other use sectors. The brochure explains the risks pose by HHPs, the possible alternatives and what can be done to phase them out and opt for more sustainable solutions.  

Almost 88 percent of the world’s 1.2 billion youth live in developing countries. Globally, young people account for approximately 24 percent of the working poor. Although the world’s youth population is expected to grow, employment and entrepreneurial opportunities for young women and men remain limited – particularly for those living in economically stagnant rural areas of developing countries. Hence, creating more productive and beneficial jobs for the rural youth is particularly urgent. The FAO Integrated Country Approach (ICA) for boosting decent jobs for youth in the agri-food system project, currently implemented in Senegal, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Guatemala, aims to address [...]

Salinization is the most severe threat to soils in the NENA region after soil erosion. Indeed, more than 11 percent of the region’s soils are affected by various levels of soil salinization Salinity has direct effects on the growth and development of plants. Sodic conditions may cause important deterioration of the soil physical properties, indirectly affecting crop growth via increased surface crusting, poor water infiltration, and reduced root zone aeration. The Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management (VGSSM) provide recommendations on how to prevent the development of salt-affected soils. If soils are already degraded and prevention is no longer an [...]