Source: UC DAVIS RURAL MIGRATION NEWS, 3/19/21


Most of the world’s workers were employed in agriculture until the 20th century, when economic development in industrial countries pushed and pulled farmers and farm workers into nonfarm jobs, where wages are generally higher and most jobs offer benefits that range from health insurance to pensions. Youth growing up on farms are often attracted to the bright lights of cities for opportunity, explaining why there is far more rural-urban than international migration.

Agriculture remains a major employer: 884 million or 27 percent of the world’s 3.3 billion workers are employed in agriculture. All countries with more than 50 percent of their workers employed in agriculture are poor, and all countries with fewer than five percent of their workers employed in agriculture are rich. Governments intervene in agriculture: most rich countries subsidize their richer-than-average farmers, while most poor countries tax their poorer-than-average farmers, using monopoly buyers of cocoa or cotton who offer below-world-market prices or monopoly importers of seeds and fertilizers who mark up the price before selling them to farmers.

The Prosperity Paradox highlights the fact that shrinking farm workforces include a higher share of hired workers who are more vulnerable than ever before.

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