Scarcity, Insecurity and Poverty: Agricultural Workers Amid the Global Financial Crunch

Of the estimated 700 million agricultural workers worldwide, as many as 70% are in Asia, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa with 20%. They are found in export plantations such as sugarcane, palm, coconut, abaca, tobacco, rubber, banana, pineapple, vegetables and other high value crops including, more recently, feedstock for biofuels. And it is upon these workers that the global financial crisis has fallen most heavily.

Agricultural wage has always been one of the lowest paid and the working conditions have been among the harshest. But because of closure and displacement in other industries, today this poorly paid sector is facing increased competition for limited jobs. As a result, there is further depression of the already low wages and labour standards in the agriculture sector.

Our understanding of the grave condition of agricultural workers is further hampered due to shortage of documentation on this workforce which is by and large seasonal or irregular.

This edition of the Special Release seeks to fill the lacuna. It provides a broad picture of the state of agricultural workers in the aftermath of the financial crisis, and also links their state to the larger deprivation emanating from globalization and marginalization of the small farm sector. It is a timely documentation of a concern that has largely escaped attention in the continuing turmoil from the global financial crisis.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This Special Release, “Scarcity, Insecurity and Poverty: Agricultural Workers amid the Global Financial Crunch” is researched and written by Arnold Padilla, a Manila-based researcher and economic journalist. He was formerly a senior researcher at IBON Foundation Inc., an independent development institution established in 1978.

This tenth issue of the Special Release is published by Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific.