Call for Working group

To retain and improve the workforce of the agri-food sector, agricultural work needs to be attractive and rural labour markets need to ensure sufficient supply of workers. This requires research to explore the attractiveness of work in the agrifood sector and to identify ways of enhancing its attractiveness both in the global North and South for local workers, migrant workers, the youth, women, etc.

An important ethical question is the quality and quantity of work people are subject to in the agri-food sector. A core topic is the definition and measurement of decent work as well as formulating and evaluating interventions to support decent work. It raises further questions such as inclusive work opportunities, consideration of work in sustainability assessments and certifications or making invisible work(ers) visible to policy, consumers and society.

Workers and farmers embody knowledge and skills in agriculture and food production. At the same time work itself has meanings to them. Insight into these meanings and embodiments of knowledge and skills is useful for understanding workers and farmers as well as for education and management. Moreover, transfer of these meanings, knowledge and skills by workers and farmers across settings could promote mutual understanding and innovation in the agri-food sector.

Work in the agri-food sector is subject to change in many dimensions, including short-term events, such as droughts or border closures and long-term historical dynamics such as digitalisation or urbanisation. Also work organisation and the co-existence of on-farm and off-farm work can imply changes of work and of production systems. Structural change in the agri-food sector, climate change, technological transitions and digitalisation can change content, requirements and effects of work on workers and influence labour migration.

Health and safety of agricultural work are well known challenges that research and policy tend to neglect. Besides physical health, psychological issues come increasingly in focus, such as burn-out or feelings of loneliness with impacts on the well- being of workers and farmers. Research not only identifies determinants of health and safety but also evaluates interventions to improve work conditions to make them less hazardous and to promote more fulfilling work in the agri- food sector.

Addressing workforce challenges requires collaborations, policies and projects or other interventions that often occur at a local or territorial level. It is important to examine case studies and evaluations of such approaches to examine systemic workforce interventions, success factors or intractable challenges to be overcome.