Work on family farms is often characterized by inadequate remuneration and poor working conditions. Most of the world’s poor family farms are small-scale operations with low yields and productivity levels. This is typically associated with poor working conditions, as family members often engage in long, arduous and sometimes hazardous work to cut costs and keep the farm viable in the short run.
This dynamic has constrained family members’ productive potential and is one of the principal reasons that so many young women and men are uninterested in taking over their families’ farms. Poor working conditions undermine family members’ well-being and ability to develop human capital, reinforcing a vicious cycle of rural poverty. Because of intra-household dynamics, women and children are often disproportionately affected. Meanwhile, it is this low productivity, harsh working conditions and lack of opportunity that have turned so many young people away from pursuing careers in family farming, and in the agricultural sector more generally.
To help farming families break out of poverty, and thereby draw young women and men back into agriculture, support for family farms and the Decent Work Agenda must go hand in hand. Productivity gains must translate into improved working conditions if families – particularly women and children – are to accumulate the human capital needed to realize their full productive potential. Only then will family farming offer the kind of appealing and well-remunerated work to which young people aspire. The promotion of decent rural employment should therefore be an integral part of broader efforts to enhance productivity, incomes and food security among family farmers.
Elisenda Estruch-Puertas and Nicholas Ross, FAO, Italy
For more information, see FAO’s recently published brief, Turning family farm activity into decent work.
Г-н Nicholas Ross