Editing Agriculture (section)

=== Workforce ===
{{see also|Gender roles in agriculture}}
[[File:Employment In Agriculture, Forestry And Fishing (2021).svg|class=skin-invert-image|thumb|Worldwide employment In agriculture, forestry and fishing in 2021]]

Agriculture provides about one-quarter of all global employment, more than half in sub-Saharan Africa and almost 60 percent in low-income countries.<ref>{{Cite web |year=2021 |title=World Bank. 2021. Employment in agriculture (% of total employment) (modeled ILO estimate) |url=https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.AGR.EMPL.ZS |access-date=12 May 2021 |website=The World Bank |place=Washington, D.C. |archive-date=7 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191007214142/https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.AGR.EMPL.ZS |url-status=live}}</ref> As countries develop, other jobs have historically pulled workers away from agriculture, and labor-saving innovations increase agricultural productivity by reducing labor requirements per unit of output.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Michaels |first1=Guy |last2=Rauch |first2=Ferdinand |last3=Redding |first3=Stephen J. |title=Urbanization and Structural Transformation |date=2012 |journal=The Quarterly Journal of Economics |volume=127 |issue=2 |pages=535–586 |doi=10.1093/qje/qjs003 |jstor=23251993 |issn=0033-5533}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Gollin |first1=Douglas |last2=Parente |first2=Stephen |last3=Rogerson |first3=Richard |date=2002 |title=The Role of Agriculture in Development|journal=The American Economic Review |volume=92 |issue=2 |pages=160–164 |doi=10.1257/000282802320189177 |jstor=3083394 |issn=0002-8282}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lewis |first=W. Arthur |year=1954 |title=Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour|journal=The Manchester School |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=139–191 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-9957.1954.tb00021.x |issn=1463-6786}}</ref> Over time, a combination of labor supply and labor demand trends have driven down the share of population employed in agriculture.<ref>{{Cite web |title=FAOSTAT: Employment Indicators: Agriculture |url=https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#home |access-date=6 February 2022 |website=FAO |publication-place=Rome |year=2022 |archive-date=14 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211114074500/https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#home |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Employment in agriculture (% of total employment) (modeled ILO estimate) |url=https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.AGR.EMPL.ZS |access-date=14 March 2023 |website=data.worldbank.org |archive-date=7 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191007214142/https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.AGR.EMPL.ZS |url-status=live}}</ref>[[File:Transition from agriculture to developed economy.svg|class=skin-invert-image|thumb|On the [[three-sector theory]], the proportion of people working in agriculture (left-hard bar in each group, green) falls as an economy becomes more developed.|220x220px]]

During the 16th century in Europe, between 55 and 75% of the population was engaged in agriculture; by the 19th century, this had dropped to between 35 and 65%.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://economics.ouls.ox.ac.uk/13621/1/uuid9ef3c3c6-512f-44b6-b74e-53266cc42ae2-ATTACHMENT01.pdf |title=Economic structure and agricultural productivity in Europe, 1300–1800 |journal=European Review of Economic History |volume=3 |pages=1–25 |author=Allen, Robert C. |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141027195415/http://economics.ouls.ox.ac.uk/13621/1/uuid9ef3c3c6-512f-44b6-b74e-53266cc42ae2-ATTACHMENT01.pdf |archive-date=27 October 2014}}</ref> In the same countries today, the figure is less than 10%.<ref name="LaborForce">{{cite web |title=Labor Force – By Occupation |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2048.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140522214333/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2048.html |archive-date=22 May 2014 |access-date=4 May 2013 |website=The World Factbook |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency}}</ref>
At the start of the 21st century, some one billion people, or over 1/3 of the available work force, were employed in agriculture. This constitutes approximately 70% of the global employment of children, and in many countries constitutes the largest percentage of women of any industry.<ref name=ILO /> The service sector overtook the agricultural sector as the largest global employer in 2007.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.financialexpress.com/news/story/191279 |title=Services sector overtakes farming as world's biggest employer: ILO |agency=Associated Press |date=26 January 2007 |access-date=24 April 2013 |newspaper=The Financial Express |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131013062206/http://www.financialexpress.com/news/story/191279 |archive-date=13 October 2013}}</ref>

In many developed countries, immigrants help fill labor shortages in high-value agriculture activities that are difficult to mechanize.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/CA1554EN |title=In Brief: The State of Food and Agriculture 2018. Migration, agriculture and rural development |publisher=FAO |year=2018 |location=Rome |access-date=6 February 2023 |archive-date=3 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230203150041/https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/CA1554EN |url-status=live}}</ref> Foreign farm workers from mostly Eastern Europe, North Africa and South Asia constituted around one-third of the salaried agricultural workforce in Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal in 2013.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Caruso |first1=F. |title=Tempo di cambiare. Rapporto 2015 sulle migrazioni interne in Italia |last2=Corrado |first2=A. |publisher=Donizelli |year=2015 |editor-last=M. Colucci & S. Gallo |location=Rome |pages=58–77 |chapter=Migrazioni e lavoro agricolo: un confronto tra Italia e Spagna in tempi di crisi}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Kasimis |first=Charalambos |date=1 October 2005 |title=Migrants in the Rural Economies of Greece and Southern Europe |url=https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/migrants-rural-economies-greece-and-southern-europe |access-date=6 February 2023 |website=migrationpolicy.org |archive-date=6 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230206172236/https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/migrants-rural-economies-greece-and-southern-europe |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Nori |first=M. |title=The shades of green: Migrants' contribution to EU agriculture. Context, trends, opportunities, challenges |publisher=Migration Policy Centre |year=2017 |isbn=9789290845560 |location=Florence |doi=10.2870/785454 |hdl=1814/49004 |issn=2467-4540 |doi-access=free |hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fonseca |first=Maria Lucinda |date=November 2008 |title=New waves of immigration to small towns and rural areas in Portugal: Immigration to Rural Portugal |journal=Population, Space and Place |volume=14 |issue=6 |pages=525–535 |doi=10.1002/psp.514}}</ref> In the United States of America, more than half of all hired farmworkers (roughly 450,000 workers) were immigrants in 2019, although the number of new immigrants arriving in the country to work in agriculture has fallen by 75 percent in recent years and rising wages indicate this has led to a major labor shortage on U.S. farms.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Preibisch |first=Kerry |date=2010 |title=Pick-Your-Own Labor: Migrant Workers and Flexibility in Canadian Agriculture |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25740855 |journal=The International Migration Review |volume=44 |issue=2 |pages=404–441 |doi=10.1111/j.1747-7379.2010.00811.x |jstor=25740855 |s2cid=145604068 |issn=0197-9183 |access-date=6 February 2023 |archive-date=6 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230206172232/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25740855 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Agriculture: How immigration plays a critical role |url=https://www.newamericaneconomy.org/issues/agriculture/ |access-date=6 February 2023 |website=New American Economy |language=en-US |archive-date=6 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406024221/https://www.newamericaneconomy.org/issues/agriculture/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

==== Women in agriculture ====
Around the world, women make up a large share of the population employed in agriculture.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |url=https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/I7658EN |title=The State of Food and Agriculture 2017. Leveraging food systems for inclusive rural transformation |publisher=FAO |year=2017 |isbn=978-92-5-109873-8 |location=Rome |access-date=6 February 2023 |archive-date=14 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230314142843/https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/I7658EN |url-status=live}}</ref> This share is growing in all developing regions except East and Southeast Asia where women already make up about 50 percent of the agricultural workforce.<ref name=":4" /> Women make up 47 percent of the agricultural workforce in sub-Saharan Africa, a rate that has not changed significantly in the past few decades.<ref name=":4" /> However, the [[Food and Agriculture Organization|Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations]] (FAO) posits that the roles and responsibilities of women in agriculture may be changing – for example, from subsistence farming to wage employment, and from contributing household members to primary producers in the context of male-out-migration.<ref name=":4" />

In general, women account for a greater share of agricultural employment at lower levels of economic development, as inadequate education, limited access to basic infrastructure and markets, high unpaid work burden and poor rural employment opportunities outside agriculture severely limit women's opportunities for off-farm work.<ref name=":13">{{Cite book |url=https://doi.org/10.4060/cc5060en |title=The status of women in agrifood systems - Overview |publisher=FAO |year=2023 |location=Rome |doi=10.4060/cc5060en |s2cid=258145984 |access-date=9 November 2023 |archive-date=16 February 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240216094829/https://www.fao.org/documents/card/en/c/cc5060en |url-status=live}}</ref>

Women who work in agricultural production tend to do so under highly unfavorable conditions. They tend to be concentrated in the poorest countries, where alternative livelihoods are not available, and they maintain the intensity of their work in conditions of climate-induced weather shocks and in situations of conflict. Women are less likely to participate as entrepreneurs and independent farmers and are engaged in the production of less lucrative crops.<ref name=":13" />

The gender gap in land productivity between female- and male managed farms of the same size is 24 percent. On average, women earn 18.4 percent less than men in wage employment in agriculture; this means that women receive 82 cents for every dollar earned by men. Progress has been slow in closing gaps in women's access to irrigation and in ownership of livestock, too.<ref name=":13" />

Women in agriculture still have significantly less access than men to inputs, including improved seeds, fertilizers and mechanized equipment. On a positive note, the gender gap in access to mobile internet in low- and middle-income countries fell from 25 percent to 16 percent between 2017 and 2021, and the gender gap in access to bank accounts narrowed from 9 to 6 percentage points. Women are as likely as men to adopt new technologies when the necessary enabling factors are put in place and they have equal access to complementary resources.<ref name=":13" />