Effects of land related factors on child labour in agriculture: evidences from Peru

Abstract

This study analyzes the relationships occurring between household characteristics, children individual factors, community/rural context, and their effect on agricultural child labour in Peru. In particular, land related factors were explicitly taken into account. In Peru the majority of child workers are engaged in farming systems characterized by great heterogeneity. Data used in this research derives from the 2013 Peruvian National Household Survey. A child labour supply model shows that a strict relation exists between land related factors and child labour in agriculture, both in terms of its incidence and intensity. Moreover, this relation changes according to land size patterns likely related to different agricultural systems. Policy makers should take in count the complex relationship between land and child labour especially with respect to child labour eradication and other development program that could directly and indirectly increase child productivity in agriculture as well as labour demand and supply.