Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests,

On behalf of the ILO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, it is my pleasure to welcome you to Bangkok for this Asian Regional Workers’ Seminar on Decent Work in Agriculture. This subject matter has historically been an area of vital importance to the ILO since its inception in 1919.

Several important ILO Conventions, including numbers 87, 98, 110, 141 and 184*, are primarily concerned with improving conditions of work for the 1.3 billion women, men and children who work in agriculture.

Half of the world's workers are found in agriculture. About 40 per cent, accounting for 450 million workers, are found in wage employment, while the remainder works in the informal sector.

Poverty and low incomes are primarily found in those countries in which agriculture is moving only slowly and absorbs a large share of the labour force. But pockets of poverty are also found in high, value-added agriculture characterized by low-skill and low-pay work and poor trade union organization. It is common for migrant workers to be employed in agriculture, and women and children can be particularly vulnerable to discrimination and abuse. There can also be devastating consequences for indigenous people, who also find themselves in a situation vulnerable to abuse, and in a situation where their human rights are abused.

The world's agricultural labour force is projected to continue to rise until 2006, albeit at a slower rate, after which it will decline in absolute terms. The declining share of agriculture in the total labour force reflects the accelerating trend towards industrialization and urbanization in all regions. The rate of growth of the labour force in agriculture is now lower than either total labour force or population growth.

The economically active population working in agriculture is currently growing fastest in sub-Saharan Africa (1.9 per cent per annum), followed by South Asia (1.5 per cent) and the Middle East/North Africa (0.8 per cent). In all other regions the growth is either negligible (0.1 per cent in Latin America) or negative (-3 per cent in North America and Western Europe).

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests

Unfortunately, decent work deficits are pervasive in the agricultural sector. They are expressed in the widespread denial of rights at work, in poor quality employment and high levels of unemployment, in unsafe working conditions and lack of income security, and finally in the inadequate representation of agricultural workers in social dialogue, which could subsequently improve their working lives.

We see decent work deficits in the fact that all conditions of work are worse in agriculture than in other sectors. Incomes are lower, in fact poverty levels are twice those of urban workers, and incomes are even more unevenly distributed than in the rest of the economy. Overall, agriculture accounts for two-thirds of the world’s poverty.

Women in rural areas suffer even greater poverty than men and are less able to exercise their basic rights, despite their high levels of labour force participation. Indeed, women account for about 40 per cent of the total agricultural workforce, but they are often paid even less than their male counterparts. Child labour and bonded labour abound.

One of the distinguishing characteristics of agricultural work is that working and living conditions are interwoven. Workers and their families live on the land, where there is much environmental spillover from occupational risks. Wider community exposure to pesticides can come in the form of contamination of foodstuffs, the misuse of containers for food or water storage, the diversion of chemically-treated seeds for human consumption, and the contamination of ground water with chemical waste. Rural communities often lack the education and information they need to respond appropriately to the risks they face.

The ILO has never accepted the belief that injury and disease ‘go with the job’, indeed, the ILO was founded to ensure everyone has the right to earn a living in freedom, dignity and security, in short, the right to decent work.

The ILO’s SafeWork Programme has been designed to respond to this need. It's primary objectives are: to create worldwide awareness of the dimensions and consequences of work-related accidents, injuries and diseases; to promote the goal of basic protection for all workers in conformity with international labour standards; and to enhance the capacity of member States and industry to design and implement effective preventive and protective policies and programmes.

As a means to raise awareness and to promote the ILO mandate in the context of the rapid globalization of agriculture throughout the world, the problems facing workers in agriculture need to be highlighted concerning social exclusion, poverty alleviation, fundamental rights, sustainable agriculture and sustainable development, food security and decent work in agriculture.

ILO standards, especially those in the Declaration on forced work, freedom of association, collective bargaining, non-discrimination and child labour, are all vitally important to vulnerable agriculture and rural workers who are often denied fundamental rights, decent work and a lack of basic food for their families, even though they produce ‘food for the world’.

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests,

The right to join and/or form independent and democratic workers' organizations of one's own choosing is a cornerstone of the ILO's stance on social justice.

By 1921, just two years after its founding, the ILO adopted a Convention extending to agricultural workers the same rights of association as for industrial workers. Legal impediments to the freedom of association of agricultural workers remain in some countries, but the real challenge is to assure the full exercise of this right in practice.

For agricultural workers, numerous obstacles remain. Trade union organizations are generally weak in rural areas, with little more than 2 to 7 per cent of the workforce organized, with some exceptions in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe.

Collective bargaining is often limited to large plantations. Seasonal, migratory and casual labour processes, with the added constraints of illiteracy, ignorance of workers' rights, and isolation render the task of organizing among rural workers particularly difficult. ILO tripartite bodies have consistently recalled the need to apply in practice basic labour rights in rural areas and strengthen rural workers' organizations.

Many agricultural workers are poorly protected by national labour law. Some countries specifically exclude the agriculture sector from their general labour legislation. In others, general protective legislation may not be fully applicable to the agriculture sector, or may simply not be applied. For example, exclusions based on the size of an undertaking or on the contractual status of the worker are common. In many cases, labour laws are not applied because employers and workers are unfamiliar with the details of the law, application is found to be impractical in agricultural enterprises, or enforcement is weak.

In some cases, specific legislation has been enacted which accommodates the special characteristics of agricultural work, providing for flexible working time arrangements, the partial payment of wages in kind, the provision of housing and health care. Typically, casual, temporary or seasonal agricultural workers do not have labour protection equal to that of permanent employees.

Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests,

The world community has set ten ambitious Millennium Development Goals through the United Nations, the aims of which are to reduce poverty and hunger, to increase access to safe drinking water, to health care and to education and to implement national strategies for sustainable development.

All of these goals are of direct interest to those who live and work in rural areas. Indeed, ensuring rural workers’ access to secure employment and decent working and living conditions are critical steps in reducing poverty and achieving sustainable livelihoods.

As I noted earlier, the ILO took an interest in the welfare, social and economic welfare of agricultural workers during its earliest years, and remains as committed to rising to the challenges facing them today.

Developing sustainable solutions to ensure decent employment in agriculture is no easy task, but is one we must apply ourselves to with dedication.

The ILO remains dedicated to the goal of decent work, based upon decent employment and income opportunities, fundamental principles and rights at work, social protection for all, and strengthening tripartism through social dialogue.

Half the world’s labour force is found in the agriculture sector, and agriculture accounts for two-thirds of the world’s poverty. This clearly illustrates the importance our tripartite constituents’ can play in improving economic and employment conditions, but also in making a significant contribution to a reduction in poverty.

I wish you a very positive and productive meeting this week, and look forward to your active participation and subsequent conclusions.

Thank you

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* Expressed in full
Convention No. 87 (1948) – Freedom of Association and Protection of the Rights to Organize Convention
Convention No. 98 (1949) – Rights to Organize and Collective Bargaining Convention
Convention No. 110 (1958) – Plantations Convention, and Recommendation No. 110 (1958)
Convention No. 141 (1975) – Rural Workers’ Organizations Convention, and Recommendation No. 149
Convention No. 184 (2001) – The Safety and Health in Agriculture Convention and Recommendation