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No child should ever be exposed to pesticides. Unfortunately, many parents who work in crop production are not aware of the hazard that pesticides pose to their children or alternatives to their use. The 30 participants of the training workshops organized in Sikasso and Niono in Mali early in June strongly recommended that “appropriate solutions to protect children and favour their education need to be identified by the communities where they live and disseminated both through Farmer Field Schools and other means of communication”. The workshops were organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, with the support of FAO, the ILO and the National Committee Against Child Labour.

These two workshops stem from broader support from FAO on reducing child labour in agriculture, which started in 2011 and included field research on child labour in the rice and cotton production areas in Mali. The research indicated that children working in the fields were exposed to various risks and hazards including exposure to chemical pesticides and herbicides, goring by oxen and wounds from sharp tools, amongst others. As a result, FAO prepared capacity development modules to train agriculture extension workers on child labour in agriculture, particularly on occupational health and safety, children’s exposure to pesticides and risks related to children’s involvement in ox ploughing. These modules will be field tested this year in Mali through the Ministry of Agriculture.

The first step taken was to present and discuss the modules with the Farmer Field School facilitators (13 men and 3 women) and the local education, health and agriculture agents who work closely in the rice and cotton value chain and have direct access to the producers and their families. 

For two intensive training days, the participants looked more closely into the concept of child labour in the context of agriculture and family farming. They carefully focused on hazards, risks to health and education for children and possible alternatives to reduce them as well as to prevent the use of children in hazardous activities. Participants learned how to undertake health and safety risk assessments as well as to identify how, where and under what circumstances children are exposed to pesticides – from the shops where pesticides are sold, to fields where it is sprayed and in homes where they are stored. Participants were also trained on how and why children are at greater risk from pesticide exposure and ways to protect them. 

On the second day, a field session was organized for participants to observe and compare two teams of oxen ploughing, one with someone in front guiding the oxen and one without. A specialist on ox-drawn ploughing facilitated the session and helped the participants to recognize the dangers of using children to guide the oxen and what needs to be done to change farmers’ present practice of using children for that particular task, including through improving the training of oxen, using better quality tools and improving soil conservation methods.

To ensure the application of knowledge learned, the participants identified entry points to systematically include the topic of child labour reduction and prevention in Farmer Field School curricula throughout the crop cycles and focus on assessing risks and building alternatives with the farmers. FAO plans to meet again at the end of the crop cycle and hear from the facilitators how the tools and information provided during the training were perceived by farmers and how these can be further improved. A radio awareness programme is also underway in the two areas; indeed, tackling child labour issues requires both working with farmers to find and adopt smart practices to reduce child labour and ramping up public awareness and the active engagement of communities.