MIGRATION OF CHILDREN FROM 7 TO 17 YEARS TO WORK IN AGRICULTURAL PLANTATIONS IN THE DIVISIONS OF MENOUA AND BAMBOUTOUS (WEST REGION OF CAMEROON): MINORS IN SEARCH OF THEIR WELL-BEING

Abstract

The advent of crisis in the 1990s, marked the fall in the prices of cash crops and the
disengagement of the State from major rural projects. This led to an increase in paid agricultural
work in divisions of the West Region of Cameroon. Based on the dependence on food crops and
market gardening cultivations, children were recruited from densely populated villages to act as
the main labour force in this sector. This work is based on a study of five markets in the divisions
of Menoua and Bamboutous. The methods of data collection for this write up includes; direct
observations, interviews with key actors, and questionnaire administration and surveys of 456
children within the study area. This enabled us to explain the basis of this growing phenomenon
of paid agricultural labour in rural areas. Underlying issues points to the pathways and risks these
children are exposed to. The study shows that children aged between 7 and 17 years occupy 70%
of the paid agricultural workforce. About 87% of the majority of the farmers are medium-sized
producers from different Sub-Divisions with cultivable lands ranging from 500 square metres to
1 hectare. Their main activity is farming and they do not have enough physical strength to devote
to it, hence the inescapability of paid agricultural labour, which covers 80% of the work on their
farms. Working conditions depend on the type of negotiation between the farmer and the farm
worker and the arrangements are verbal and based on mutual trust. Finally, paid agricultural
work contributes to the development of arable land, the improvement of workers' living
conditions and food security. However, without any form of social protection, it compromises
the education of the children who engage in it and exposes them to all forms of abuse, the
consequences of which are sometimes irreversible, hence the need for regulation from the family
unit to public development policies.