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African Journal of Agricultural Marketing ISSN: 2375-1061 Vol. 2 (12), pp. 182-187, December, 2014. Available 
online at www.internationalscholarsjournals.org © International Scholars Journals 

 

Author(s) retain the copyright of this article. 
 
 
 
 
 

Review 

 

Measures to Eradicate Child Labour in the Agricultural 
commodity Labour markets 

 

Chukwendo D. Macaulay 

 
Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria. 

 
Accepted 16 November, 2014 

 
A simmering crisis in the Nigerian agriculture today involves labour and the crisis manifests itself in the 
degree of labour availability, labour demand and labour productivity. One of the major products of this 
crisis is the increased participation of children in paid, non-familiar agricultural jobs. They are frequently 
employed as farm labourers, bird scarers, food crop harvesters, processors and hawkers. More than 132 
million children work in agriculture. Agriculture ranks as one of the three most dangerous work activities, 
followed by mining and construction. Child labour is increasing in postharvest processing, transport, 
marketing and a range of agro industries. Child labour is maybe one of the most striking indicators 
identifying vulnerable children and as such pointing to shortcomings in several of the millennium goals as 
poverty eradication, education for all, gender equality, combating HIV/AIDS and creation of a global 
partnership for development. Most working children do so after a decision in their parental household. To 
understand the household labour supply decisions, relation to the labour market and to public 
interventions is critical in designing programmes in order to achieve the MDGs. The research on child 
labour represents in this respect a largely untapped resource of knowledge for policymakers in the fields of 
agriculture, education programmes and poverty reduction programmes. The effect of lack of education 
opportunities on child labour is well documented, but existence of widespread agricultural child labour also 
reduces the effectiveness of investment in education. It is recommended in this paper that the legislator 
should enact laws that will reduce agricultural child labour through redistribution of the nation’s resources, 
women should be integrated in the fight to combat child labour and that alternative income sources should 
be provided for rural families whose children are the most vulnerable. 

 
Key words: Child labour, agriculture, combating, development. 

 

 
INTRODUCTION 
 
Child labor is a complex issue. To begin with, not all work 
involving children should be a cause for concern that is, 
not all work is labour. Developmentally appropriate 
economic activity can be beneficial to the full development 
of a child, but at its extreme, work can place  a  child’s life 

 
 
 
 
 
and well being at risk. Work that is exploitative, dangerous 
and detrimental to the physical, social, moral or spiritual 
development of children, or inhibits a child’s ability to 
receive a quality, relevant education, is considered hazar-
dous  labour  and  poses  is considered hazardous labour



Chukwendo 182 
 
 

 
 

and poses a major human rights and socio-economic 
challenge. 

There are numerous social, human and environmental 
factors that influence how families and children view the 
premature participation of children in the labor market. 
Child labor and its causes vary from country to country, 
community to community, and even household to house-
hold. Therefore, strategies to combat child labor call for 
context-specific and solution- oriented interventions that 
take into account the nuances of local environments.  

Nearly 70 percent of child laborers are engaged in 
rural-based economic activities. Agricultural work is the 
most prevalent form of child labour, and one of the most 
hazardous (ILO,1999) While interventions by NGOs and 
other organizations and institutions have targeted the 
worst forms of exploitative child labour in urban areas, 
(ILO,2002), the vast majority of child laborers continue to 
toil away in the countryside. It is significant to note that 
children from rural areas also comprise a significant 
percentage of the children who eventually end up in the 
worst and most exploitive forms of urban child labour.  

Poverty and child labor are inexorably linked; however, 
poverty can exist even when child labour does not. 
Different groups can frame poverty in different terms, 
focusing on, for example: income or consumption poverty, 
human development and underdevelopment, social 
exclusion, overall well being, vulnerability or an inability to 
meet certain basic needs. Child labour is strongly asso-
ciated with income poverty and often reflects the fragility 
of a country’s struggle toward greater economic prosperity 
(Castle and Diarra, 2004). In low-income countries, child 
labor historically declines when gross domestic product 
(GDP) per capita increases (EFA, 2007). However, child 
labor is not only a symptom of poverty, it is a contributing 
factor. Child labor often consists of simple, unskilled 
routines that offer little opportunity for progression to 
better paying, more interesting or safer occupations. 
Many child laborers engage in invisible, unacknowledged 
and unregulated tasks, which can include hazardous 
work on family farming plots under the direct supervision 
of parents or caregivers. Local tradition and culture, as 
well as family solidarity, can make it difficult to acknow-
ledge that these children are being exploited. However, 
not all work that children perform on family farming plots 
is hazardous; a closer examination of these activities is 
necessary. Educating parents and caregivers on activities 
that are truly hazardous to children will empower them to 
make informed choices.  

In addition to family farming plots, children work on, or 
accompany their parents or caregivers to large agricultural 
plantations. This is common when school is too 
expensive, or too far from home, or when daycare is not 
an option. Since children are often seen as extensions of 
the family unit, they are not paid for their work on the 
plantations, and employers claim no responsibility for 
their health or safety. On cocoa plantations in West 
Africa, children do a variety of work that includes carrying 

 
 
 

 
cocoa beans to be dried, transporting foods such as 
plantains and cassava, and fetching water for drinking 
and irrigation. Their duties also include hazardous work 
like weeding with cutlasses, carrying and applying 
pesticides, and harvesting and splitting cocoa pods with a 
hook-shaped instrument referred to by locals as a ―go to 
hell‖ (CARE, 2007). Children are usually aware of the 
dangers they face, such as cuts, insect and snake bites, 
and skin irritation from applying pesticides — dangers 
they can also face while working on family farming plots  
— but there is little they can do. Plantation work is often 
seasonal; families migrate with the changes in season 
and crop cycle. As a result, children often miss large 
parts of the school year, or start school late. It is not 
uncommon for children enrolled in school to be sent to 
the fields to work during school hours. 
 
 
The millennium development goals 

 
The origins of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 
lie in the United Nations Millennium Declaration, which 
was adopted by all 189 UN Member States on 8 
September 2000. By the year 2015, all 191 United 
Nations Member States have pledged to meet the 
following goals: 
 
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger   
2. Achieve universal primary education   
3. Promote gender equality and empower women   
4. Reduce child mortality   
5. Improve maternal health  
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases   
7. Ensure environmental sustainability   
8. Develop a global partnership for development  
 
 
Child labour/street child defined 

 
The World Bank lacks a universal definition of child 
labour, as the definitions of ―children‖ and labour are 
highly dependent on the locality of these elements. 
However, in Brazil child labour refers to any work, paid or 
unpaid, for at least one hour per week and that any type 
of labour is illegal for children under 14 years of age 
(Gustafsson-Wright and Pyne, 2002). Child labour 
typically interferes with the schooling of children, obliging 
them to leave school early, or try to combine school and 
work which makes for long hours of work without rest, or 
making it impossible for them to attend at all. It is 
common that children in rural areas engage in agricultural 
activities in some form, whether seasonal to coincide with 
crop cycles and or school holidays or full time. In West 
Africa, as in many parts of the world, the participation of 
children in agricultural work alongside adults is a valued 
tradition. In the cocoa industry, many children work on 
small  family  farms of five to six hectares, the products of 



 
 
 

 
which are sold to local markets or consumed by the 
families themselves (ILO-IPEC, 2007). 
 
Child labour, child abuse and agricultural labour 
 
The issue of the involvement of children in agricultural 
labour could normally be treated under child abuse. In its 
original and narrowest formulation, ―child abuse‖ refers 
principally to cases fitting into what clinical paediatricians 
describe as the ―battered baby syndrome‖, a 
phenomenon which has been documented extensively in 
the industria-lized countries (Osotimehin et al., 2007). 
Over the years, however, a broader formulation has 
emerged and the term has to apply to all such acts of 
commission or omission which tend to deny children of 
the human treatment to which they are entitled or to 
deprive them of the opportunities for the total 
development of their human personality and potentials.  

Child labour is generally characterized as any physical 
engagement of the child, either paid or unpaid and 
directed to alleviate the burden of adults outside or inside 
the home, so as to make a living for the child himself or to 
help the adult (Donli, 2004).  

From the framework described above, child labour has 
been described as work that is inconsistent with the prin-
ciples set under the conventions and recommendations, 
namely that the child is below the minimum age for a 
given occupation or type of work, or work in an otherwise 
non-hazardous occupation under conditions that render 
the work hazardous for adolescents (IITA, 2002).  

Studies carried out by UNICEF show that child 
labourers are found all over the world. In the industrialized 
countries, for example, about 2.5 million children aged 5  
– 14 years are found to be economically active (about 2% 
of the total child population). In countries with transition 
economies, 2.4 million children aged 5 – 14 or around 4 
percent of the total population are economically active.  

However, the largest numbers of working children are 
found in the developing countries. Here, the most 
disturbing cases are in sub-Saharan Africa where 29 
percent of children aged 5 – 14 are working (48 million) 
followed by Asia and the Pacific (19% or 127.3 million), 
Latin America and the Caribbean (16% or 17.4 million) 
and the Middle East and North Africa (15% or 13.4 
million), where many children are born for agric labour.  

In Africa, children have traditionally been regarded as 
members of the production unit of the family. They serve 
their parents in various capacities, depending on the 
occupation and social status of their families (Osotimehin 
et. al., 2007). Generally, the use of children as members 
of the family labour force is regarded as an integral part 
of the children’s socialization process. Child rearing 
customs expect them to be assigned some domestic 
work commensurate with age, sex and physique. It is 
believed that by so doing, these children will pick up 
useful  skills, learn  more  about  their  own   communities 

183 Afr. J. Agric. Mark. 
 
 

 
and, hence prepare themselves for responsibilities of 
adult life.  

Child labour is maybe one of the most striking 
indicators identifying vulnerable children and as such 
pointing to shortcomings in several of the millennium 
goals as poverty eradication (1), education for all (2), 
gender equality (3), discrimination of girls towards 
education and traditional burdens put on girls in their own 
households as reasons for child labour, combating 
HIV/AIDS (6) AIDS orphanages as another reason for 
child labour, and developing a global partnership for 
development (8), including developing descent and 
productive work for youths since child labour in its worst 
forms often has cross border links and that decent and 
productive work for youths are undermined by the 
existence of child labour.  

Child labour can be found everywhere. The use of child 
labour in the early phases of industrialisation in many 
countries has attracted special attention. Some early 
research on child labour came to the conclusion that it is 
a special ―need‖ to eradicate child labour in this phase 
of development. The question now should be, does child 
labour hamper economic growth? It does so by not only 
reducing the individual’s educational achievements but 
reduces the effect and quality of the education system. 
Child labour is also associated with households where 
poverty is inherent from one generation to the next. 
Hence, as the fight against child labour has gained inter-
national momentum during the last decade and as a lot of 
research work has been undertaken to better understand 
the causes and consequences of child labour, it is natural 
to utilise this information to help underpin the work 
towards the millennium development goals. Reduction of 
child labour will help improve children’s educational 
achievements including the efficiency and capacity of the 
education system and help reduce poverty. 

 
Nigeria and child labour policies 

 
Nigeria has ratified convention No. 138, the Minimum Age 

Convention No. 182, the worst forms of child labour 

convention, both in 2002 (ICFTU, 2005). The constitution 

states that primary education should be provided free and 

compulsory ―when practical‖. However, in practice access 

to education is very limited due to lack of facilities. Girls have 

less access to education than boys. Net primary school 

enrolment for girls was over 33 percent over the period of 

1998 - 2002. For boys, this percentage was 38 percent over 

the same period. The minimum age for employment is 15 

years in most sectors; however, child labour is widespread in 

Nigeria. Children younger than 15 years can only be 

employed in home-based agricultural or domestic work, but 

not in commerce and industrial work, and they are not 

allowed to work more than 8 h per day (ICFTU, 2005). In 

2000, the ILO estimated that 23.5 percent of children 

between 10 and 14 were working. 



Chukwendo 184 
 
 
 
 

Children are mainly employed in agriculture (on family 
farms), in fishing and herding, but also on commercial 
farms. Furthermore, they are employed in the informal 
economy as domestic workers, street vendors, car 
washers, beggars and vendors in markets.  

Some children work in small industries as mechanics, 
metal workers, carpenters, weavers and barbers. Child 
begging is widespread in Nigeria and child prostitution is 
a serious problem in main cities in Nigeria.  

A 2003 study by the ILO and the Government (Federal 
Office of Statistics) estimated the number of working 
children at 15 million, of which up to 40% is at risk to be 
trafficked for forced labour. Of these working children, 6 
million do not attend school and 2 million work more than 
15 h per day (ICFTU, 2005). Child labour inspection is 
limited to the formal economy where the level of child 
labour is relatively low. There is also a lack of inspectors.  

It is important to observe that the government in the 
pre- independence era was not indifferent to child 
welfare. For instance, the Children and Young Persons 
Law (CYPL) in several states in Nigeria contained laws 
regu-lating street trading and the fact that in the 1960s, at 
least four (4) ILO conventions prohibiting children’s work 
in various hazardous occupations and conditions were 
ratified. However, the enactment of the Labour Code in 
1974 with several provisions to limit the age of admission 
into employment in various occupations as well as limits 
the working hours and exposure to hazards was a 
decisive legal action, which demonstrated the stance of 
government towards achieving child welfare. The ratify-
cation and signing of the United Nations Convention on 
the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in 1991 represented the 
climax in government’s positive stance to combat child 
labour in view of the fact that one of its articles targets the 
elimination of the phenomenon (Oloko, 1999). Article 32 
enjoins state parties to recognize the right of the child to 
be protected from economic exploitation and from 
performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to 
interfere with the child’s education or to be harmful to the 
child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social 
development (UNICEF, 2001). In addition, the effort of 
government on child welfare precipitated former President 
Olusegun Obasanjo to sign into law the child right bill in 
June 2006. Other efforts by government and non-
government organisations include:- 
 
1. Section 31 of Cap 32 of the laws of the Federation of 
Nigeria, which prohibits children under 14 years and girls 
less than 16 years from trading in the streets.   
2. Centre for Non-Formal Education and Training 
(CENFET) provides basic education for out-of-school and 
working children especially scavengers.  
3. The ―Hawking by children Edict Cap 58 Law of Nigeria‖.   
4. The Nomadic Education Programme under the National   
Commission for Nomadic Education promulgates by 
Decree 41 of 1989 was the major programme that has 
been  established  for  children  who have never attended 

 
 
 

 
school. It was established in recognition of the fact that 
the migratory nature of pastoral nomads and migrant 
fishermen made it difficult for their children (who 
invariably work with their parents) to be enrolled in formal 
education.  

It is sad to note that these efforts have made marginal 
impact on improving child welfare or specifically reducing 
incidence of child labour and street children (UNICEF, 
2001). This is largely because these measures have 
been uncoordinated, not well implemented and largely 
unenforced. For instance, studies conducted by various 
researchers in Nigeria (Oloko, 1999; UNICEF, 2004; 
Imam, 1998; Onuike, 1998; Okpukpara and Odurukwe, 
2003) show that the child labour and street children are 
increasing in both practices and characteristics. It was 
also reported that gender restrictions in the involvement 
of children in work in certain crafts were found to have 
been eroded such that increasingly boys and girls were 
engaged in most occupations. In other countries, studies 
attest the same story. UNICEF reported that in the year 
2000, there were 233 million children between the ages 
of 5 – 18 years in urban areas in developing countries 
doing one kind of paid work or the other (UNICEF, 2004).  

This development has grave economic and develop-
ment consequences. Many studies have condemned 
child participation in economic activities and worst form of 
it (street children) because of it resultant effect on health, 
schooling, physical, moral and psychological development 
of the child (UNICEF, 2004; ILO-IPEC, 2002). 
 
 
Child-workers in agricultural commodity markets 
 
An evaluation of youths’ participation in porterage ser-
vices in Ogbomosho, Oyo State, Nigeria by Oshotimehin 
et al. (2007). The issue of the active involvement of 
children in the Nigerian agricultural markets in Ogbomoso 
revealed that most of the participants were hired into the 
business due to such factors as poverty, family psycho-
social problems. The child-workers used head porterage, 
wheel barrow and two-wheeled carts to transport cassava 
tubers from the markets to the various processing points 
of their employers. Minority (32%) of them are in the 
business on full time while the remaining 67.5 percent do 
it on part-time basis usually after returning from school, 
during holidays and weekends. They showed that one the 
average income these youngsters earned is about 
N265.00 per day. Though the employment seems to be 
lucrative with respect to the present day structure in the 
public services, this study is of the opinion that Nigerian 
youths should be discouraged from further participation in 
such activities, since it affects their schooling and 
personal development. Most importantly, no special skills 
are being acquired in the work. This is impacting on their 
future survival and contributing to economy of the nation. 
A research work carried out by Lawal and Akintayo (2007) 
in  Oyo State,  Nigeria  shows   that    children   producing 



 
 
 
 
vegetables fell between the ages of 14 and 17 and more 
male children were involved than females. Major reasons 
for venturing into vegetable production include income 
generation, family sustenance and supplementation of 
school fees. Hazards children were exposed to include 
physical, environmental and educa-tional hazards. ILO 
(2007) opined the existence of child labour in cocoa 
farms in Ondo State of Nigeria and over 1,500 children 
were withdrawn from child labour, mainly throuh 
education/training options or health services, or 
prevented from starting such work. Over 500 parents/ 
guardians were trained in various income generating 
activities. In Nigeria, WACAP’s awareness-raising efforts 
centered on getting articles in national dailies and news 
and features ontelevision. The Ministers of Information 
and Labour were reported as praising WACAP for 
championing the campaign to eradicate child labour in 
agriculture (ILO, 2007). 
 
 
Measures to reduce child labour 

 
According to Udry (2004), the most effective way to draw 
children out of damaging work is to encourage school 
attendance. One way of doing so would be to improve 
school quality, and therefore increase the gain to 
attending school. Handa (2002), for example, argues that 
school enrollment in Mozambique is quite sensitive to the 
number of trained teachers. This is an important tool that 
is available to reduce child labor.  

The most promising tool yet developed for reducing 
child labor is a targeted subsidy to families sending their 
children to school. In such a program, a grant is provided 
to the family of any child who is enrolled in school. The 
particular value of this intervention is that it addresses the 
root causes of child labor. It overcomes the problems 
associated with imperfect or nonexistent financial markets 
by balancing the current cost of moving a child out of the 
labor force and into school with a current grant. It 
addresses the main agency problem by providing current 
resources, thus, reducing the importance of inter-
generational transfers. Subsidies for school enrollment is 
a useful tool in the effort to reduce child labor.  

The effects of child labor are large for older children (10 
- 13 year olds); younger children were unlikely to work 
even before the program. The program’s impact was to 
reduce the proportion of children working by almost 9 
percentage points (from a base of 27%). The Food-For-
Education program in rural Bangladesh is similar in spirit 
to the other two programs. The monthly payment is 
smaller; 15 to 25 percent of average monthly earnings for 
working children. Nevetheless, Ravallion and Wodon 
(1999) estimated that the FFE program moved primary 
school enrollment from approximately 75% to over 90%. 
Child labor force participation dropped as well (by about 
30% for boys and by about 20% for girls).  

Child labor can effectively  be  reduced by subsidies for 

185 Afr. J. Agric. Mark. 
 
 

 
school enrollment. This tool dominates alternatives 
because it addresses directly the tragic circumstances 
that impel families to send their children to work instead 
of school. An effective subsidy program is not un-
reasonably expensive because the costs are tied to the 
low wages earned by child workers. 
 
 
Women at crossroads as agents of change 
 
Women are to be on the frontlines of the fight against 
child labor. An empowered woman that understands the 
dangers associated with hazardous and exploitative child 
labor, and the power an education can have on changing 
the future for her children, can help reduce the number of 
child laborers and those at risk of becoming child 
laborers. An investment in women is an investment in 
combating and ultimately eliminating child labor (CARE, 
2007).  

Women possess the skills and knowledge necessary 
for galvanizing community action to reduce and eliminate 
child labor, and improve the quality of community-level 
education.  

Women stand at the crossroads when it comes to their 
impact on child labour. Empowered women are keenly 
aware of the dangers associated with child labour, and 
have proven vital to the success and sustainability of 
child-labour efforts. On the other hand, women that are 
unaware of the hazards and exploitative conditions 
children face, and the power of education to mitigate 
these dangers, can fuel the premature entry of children 
into the workforce, contributing to lower academic 
performance and higher dropout rates. A comprehensive 
analysis of how women can mitigate or exacerbate rates 
of child labour is urgently needed. 

 
Economic alternatives for families 
 
When families have resources, knowledge and oppor-
tunities to develop alternative forms of income, parents 
and caregivers are more likely to withdraw their children 
from hazardous and exploitative child labor and encour-
age them to attend and complete school.  

Adult family members gain knowledge, skills and other 
capabilities that allow them to find alternative employ-
ment opportunities, increasing their incomes and elimina-
ting the need for their children to work. According to 
CARE (2007), some action plans needs to be in place for 
success and these plans are, 
 
1. Skills-training programs for parents and caregivers that 
will help increase their incomes and further their personal 
development.   
2. Long-term commitments from families, donors, imple-   
menting agencies and local partner NGOs are secured  at 
the outset of a project, and continue even after the project



Chukwendo 186 
 
 
 
ends. 
 
3. Projects that have a market-oriented focus.   
4. Vocational training programs provide former child 
laborers and those at risk with valuable life skills. The 
programs should take into account the needs of the local 
labor market as well as the opinions and beliefs of 
youths, parents and caregivers - including mechanisms 
for holding trainers accountable.   
5. Alliances with employers and technical institutions 
enable education programs to offer training in job-related 
skills.  
 

 
Conclusion 

 
To understand the household reactions to public inter-
ventions is critical in designing programmes in order to 
achieve the MDGs. The research on child labour repre-
sents in this respect a largely untapped resource of 
knowledge for policymakers in the fields of education and 
poverty reduction programmes. In particular the research 
on child labour brings about vital information on the role 
of the labour market in fighting poverty, but these links 
are not made in the intervention programmes. This paper 
has shown how child labour not only derives from poverty 
but adds to it through its effects on the labour market and 
education system. Eliminating child labour requires 
determined action across a broad front – economic, 
social and cultural norms. It cannot be eliminated solely 
by government action. A broad and committed coalition is 
needed – including educational institutions, teachers’ 
organizations, NGOs, mass media and community-based 
organizations, along with support from trade unions and 
employers’ organizations. The first task is to ensure 
effective legislation. This is important but not sufficient. 
Most countries already prohibit child labour, and a small 
but growing number are establishing systems to monitor 
the situation and enforce the laws. 
 

 
Abbreviations 

 
CARE, Cooperative for assistance and relief everywhere; 

CENFET, centre for non-formal education and training; 

CYPL, children and young persons law; EFA, education for 

all; FAO, food and agricultural organisation; FFE, food for 

education; ICFTU, international confederation of free trade 

unions; ILO, international labour organisation; IPEC, 

international program on the elimination of child labour; 

NGO, non-governmental organisation; SARD, sustainable 

agriculture and rural development; UN, united nations; 

UNCRC, united nations convention on rights of the child; 

UNICEF, united nations children’s fund; 

 
 
 

 
WACAP, programme to combat hazardous and 
exploitative child labour in cocoa/commercial agriculture 
in West Africa. 
 
 
Conflict of Interests 
 
The authors have not declared any conflict of interests. 
 

 
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The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF. House, 3 
UN Plaza, New York, NY 10017, USA. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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