Children working in commercial agriculture: evidence from West and Central Africa

This paper focuses on children working in commercial agriculture, whether they do so as unpaid family labour or as paid workers, part-time or full-time. Two different perspectives inform research and policy-making on children’s work in cash crops. One has trafficking in persons and new forms of slavery at its core and the second focuses on children’s work on the family farm, the actual work carried out on cocoa farms by children of different ages, children’s labour migration and the importance of social networks, and children’s views on work in cash crops. The two perspectives represent counter arguments in the debate about children’s work in commercial agriculture: a debate that has helped to refine how we think about exploitation. This briefing paper aims to unpack the circumstances in which children work in commercial agriculture by paying attention to the work carried out by boys and girls, young children and older children, as well as to the aspirations that motivate children to engage in paid farm work or to help in cash crops on the family farm.