The Abundance of Hope Initiative (AHI) has claimed that the Agricultural sector currently accounts for the largest proportion of children in labour when compared to domestic service and trafficking for prostitution.
The organisation also lamented a recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) which revealed that over 15 million children are engaged in one form of child labour or the other in Nigeria, calling on the government to adopt climate-smart farming to reverse the trend.
AHI made this revelation in Abuja at a one-day capacity building it organised for members of the Abuja farmers association as part of the body’s activities to commemorate the 2024 World Day Against Child Labour (WDACL) for farmers and children who were involved in child labour.
AHI member, who facilitated the training, Gbenga Adeleke, stressed the need to raise awareness of the menace of child labour in the agricultural sector.
He called on the farmers to understand the critical issues around child labour in the sector and the benefits of climate-smart farming using the comparative advantage approach.
Adeleke charged smallholder farmers with the need to recognise their roles in protecting children against any form of child labour as well as identifying and preventing factors that constitute the problem in their farms.
He assured the farmers and their association of AHI’s support to strengthen their operation and capacity for legal registration.
Adeleke said the AHI will collaborate with the leadership of the association to facilitate the enrolment and integration of victims of child labour.
