The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation has criticised efforts made by governments around the world to eliminate child labour. Tuesday is the World day against Child Labour and the FAO has said world leaders risk missing the internationally agreed target of stamping out the worst forms of child labour by 2016 unless efforts are stepped up.  

Worldwide 215 million children are classed as child labourers, of these over half work in agriculture Only one in five child labourers is paid - most are unpaid family workers, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Child labourers are often employed in hazardous working conditions, including work in fields where pesticides have been applied, staying up all night on a fishing boat, or carrying loads so heavy that they harm the development of the child's body.

FAO director general José Graziano da Silva today spoke out against conditions which allow child labour, often the product of poverty, to continue. He said, "Child labour is a human rights abuse and is an obstacle to sustainable development of agriculture and food security. Work that harms children's health and development can have long-lasting effects into adulthood, and child labour has been repeatedly shown to have a negative impact on education.

"Child labour also strongly undermines efforts to promote decent youth employment, a key element in revitalizing agriculture around the world and reducing poverty. It is our joint responsibility to support poor rural families so children can go to school instead of working. Every child has the right to education."

In 2006, governments, workers' and employers' organizations committed to eliminating the worst forms of child labour, including hazardous work, by 2016. In 2010, the international community has adopted the Roadmap for Achieving the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour by 2016, which highlights the predominance of child labour in agriculture.

Addressing small-scale agriculture

According to FAO, action on child labour is often focused on international markets and value-chains for export, such as the cocoa and cotton industry, but the majority of child labourers in agriculture work in small-scale, family based agriculture, including food crop production, fishing, forestry and livestock.

Impediments to tackling abuses include the under-regulation of agriculture in many countries and a lack of clear policy actions to ending child labour, according to the FAO. The organisation said that Cambodia has begun implementing concrete policies in its fisheries and aquaculture sector to address the issue.

FAO spokesperson Árnie M. Mathiesen added, "Given the challenges of poverty and limited labour law enforcement in remote areas and in agriculture, the buy in, ownership and commitment of local communities is key for achieving sustainable solutions,"

The organisation called for increased support for global regions where lack of available income or nutrition may prevent families from sending their children to work rather than school. It said governments and international agencies should step up programmes supporting income diversification, risk resilience, natural resource management, quality rural education and labour-saving technologies in order to target the root causes of child labour in agriculture, thereby helping to provide sustainable solutions for addressing the problem.

Later this month world leaders will meet in Rio de Janeiro to discuss ways to address the problems of climate change and poverty.

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