FAO report criticised livestock industry over child labour
26/02/2013
Agriculture accounts for most of the reported child labour in the world, it said, and livestock accounts for around 40% of the agricultural economy. It says efforts to curb child labour will require governments, farmer organisations and rural families to find alternatives to “practices which often reflect the need for survival”.
Assistant director-general, Jomo Sundaram, said on announcing the findings: “Reducing child labour in agriculture is not only an issue of human rights, it is also part of the quest for truly sustainable rural development and food security.”
Livestock is at least a partial source of income and food security for 70% of the world’s 880 million rural poor, who live on less than $1 a day, the FAO said, and it acknowledged that many situations categorised by international norms as child labour take place in “unregulated, smallholder agriculture”. It makes it clear that, for centuries, pastoralist communities have involved their children with the family livestock. However, it said this is depriving children in some cases of their right to education.
“There are strong signals that pastoralist communities recognise the importance of education for their children,” the study said, “and very much appreciate sending their children to school if the education is of a good level and relevant to the pastoral way of life, and especially if schooling can be combined with child work in the herd.”
One of the recommendations to have come out of the study is that companies in the livestock industry ensure that child labour is not involved in their supply chains and that they give support access to alternatives for children and their families.
Initiatives that companies along the supply chain can support include distance learning, mobile schools, school-feeding programmes, pastoralist field schools, and livestock farmer field schools.
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