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Trend threatens the well-being of millions of children and undermines efforts to end hunger and poverty

After years of steady decline, child labor in global agriculture has started to rise again in recent years, driven in part by an increase in conflict and climate-related disasters.

This worrying trend not only threatens the well-being of millions of children, but also undermines efforts to end world hunger and poverty, warned the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on World Day Against Child Labor.

The number of children working in agriculture around the world has increased considerably, from 98 million in 2012 to 108 million today, after more than a decade of continuous decline, according to the latest estimates.

Prolonged conflicts and climatic-type natural disasters, followed by forced migration, have forced hundreds of thousands of children to work.

Homes in Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon, for example, are prone to resorting to child labor to ensure the family's survival. Refugee children carry out different tasks: they work in garlic processing, in greenhouses for the production of tomatoes or collect potatoes, figs and beans.

They are often exposed to multiple threats, including pesticides, inadequate sanitation conditions in the field, high temperatures and fatigue at work that requires great physical effort for long periods.

At the same time, efforts to eliminate child labor in agriculture face persistent challenges due to rural poverty and the concentration of child labor in the informal economy and in unpaid family work.

Zero hunger is only possible by eliminating child labor

FAO claims that child labor in agriculture is a global problem that harms children, the agricultural sector and perpetuates rural poverty.

For example, when children are forced to work long hours, their willingness to go to school and develop their skills is limited, which interferes with their ability to access decent and productive employment opportunities later in life, including jobs in a modernized agricultural sector.

“It is likely that children who work long hours continue to join the queues of the poor and hungry. As their families depend on their work, this deprives children of the opportunity to go to school, which in turn prevents them from getting decent jobs and income in the future,” said FAO Deputy Director General Daniel Gustafson.

“Given that more than 70% of child labor worldwide takes place in agriculture, it is vital to integrate this problem into national agricultural policies and address it at the household level. Otherwise, poverty and hunger in rural areas will further aggravate. We need to break this vicious circle if we are to move towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Zero hunger is not possible without zero child labor”.

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According to FAO, three out of four children who work are in agriculture. Since 2012, over 10 million children have been working in the agricultural sector.

Of the 152 million child workers, the majority (108 million) are employed in agriculture, livestock, forestry or aquaculture. Furthermore, around 70% of child labor is unpaid family work, while the incidence of child labor in countries affected by armed conflict is 77% higher than the world average.

About half of all child labor in the world is in Africa: 72 million—out of every five African children—work, the majority in the agricultural sector. Next comes Asia, where 62 million children work.