Employment

Agriculture and employment

Agriculture is, in most countries, a strategic sector by virtue of its role as a producer of food, as a provider of employment and as a source of foreign exchange. Agriculture is a prime engine of growth in the process of development.

Key facts about employment in agriculture:

• With over 1 billion people employed in the sector, agriculture is the second greatest source of employment worldwide after services.
  
• The share of agriculture in total employment is declining, but the number of people working in the sector in 2007 was almost the same as in 1991. In North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean and South-East Asia and the Pacific, the number of people employed in agriculture actually grew during that period.
  
• Agriculture is the most important sector for female employment in many countries, and especially in Africa and Asia. It has been estimated that rural women produce more than half of the food grown worldwide. In rural Africa women produce, process and store up to 80 per cent of foodstuffs while in South Asia and south-East Asia they produce and process 60 per cent of food production.
  
• Agriculture accounts for 63 per cent of rural household income in Africa, 62 per cent in Asia, 50 per cent in Europe and 56 per cent in Latin America. However, non-agricultural activities have come to provide a much larger share than in the past. For example in Kenya, smallholders derive approximately 40 per cent of their income from off-farm activities.
  

To see where your country stands in terms of agricultural employment as a portion of total employment and the portion of gross domestic product attributable to agriculture, click here.

To find out more about trends in rural employment, click here.

To find out more about poverty and employment dynamics in rural labour markets, click here.

To find about more about generating more and better jobs through sustainable rural growth, click here.

To find out why agriculture still matters, click here.

To learn about the impact of HIV/AIDS on agriculture in Africa, click here.