# Editorial: Work in agriculture: New perspectives

Benoit Dedieu, Sandra Contzen, Ruth Nettle, Sandra Mara de Alencar
Schiavi, Mohamed Taher Sraïri

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Benoit Dedieu, Sandra Contzen, Ruth Nettle, Sandra Mara de Alencar Schiavi, Mohamed Taher Sraïri.

Editorial: Work in agriculture: New perspectives. Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 2023, 6, 10.3389/fsufs.2022.1104296. hal-03988447

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Submitted on 14 Feb 2023

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EDITED AND REVIEWED BY
Hannah Wittman,
University of British Columbia, Canada

*CORRESPONDENCE

Benoit Dedieu

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benoit.dedieu@inrae.fr

SPECIALTY SECTION

This article was submitted to
Social Movements, Institutions and
Governance,
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems

RECEIVED 21 November 2022

ACCEPTED 13 December 2022

PUBLISHED 24 January 2023

CITATION

Dedieu B, Contzen S, Nettle R, Schiavi SMA and Srairi MT (2023) Editorial: Work in agriculture: New perspectives. *Front. Sustain. Food Syst.* 6:1104296. doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2022.1104296

COPYRIGHT

© 2023 Dedieu, Contzen, Nettle, Schiavi and Srairi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the [Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

# Editorial: Work in agriculture: New perspectives

Benoit Dedieu<fnref n="1" />*, Sandra Contzen², Ruth Nettle³,
Sandra Mara de Alencar Schiavi⁴ and Mohamed Taher Sraïri⁵

¹Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Environnement et l'Alimentation (INRAE), Tropical and Mediterranean Animal Production Systems Unit (UMR SELMET), Paris, France, ²Bern University of Applied Sciences, Bern, Switzerland, ³School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, Australia, ⁴Department of Management, State University of Maringa (UEM), Maringa, Parana, Brazil, ⁵Department of Animal Production and Biotechnology, Hassan II Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine Institute, Rabat, Morocco

KEYWORDS

work, employment, agriculture, perspective, multidisciplinary

## Editorial on the Research Topic

### Work in agriculture: New perspectives

The characteristics of work are an important yet under-researched area for the future of agricultural systems, considering there are currently 1.3 billion agricultural workers. Agriculture remains an essential employment sector, accounting for 27% of the world's working population, despite contrasting environments between OECD and non-OECD countries. Changes in agricultural work and employment reflect societal, business, environmental, and social pressures, covering among others agroecological transition of agricultural practices, structural and social changes, new technologies, impacts on value chains and food systems, and demands for decent work by employees and family workers. In this special issue, we present innovative approaches covering some of the major topics considered during the 2nd International Symposium on Work in Agriculture (29 March–1 April 2021, entitled: “Thinking the Future of Work in Agriculture”).<fnref n="1" /> From a multidisciplinary perspective, different issues were addressed, such as: how to foster agricultural employment notably for youths and women; how do actors along the value chains consider work and its fair remuneration; which new farming models emerge beyond the classical opposition between industrial vs. family farming; and how do women as farm managers transform the working environment.

The first paper, by Dedieu et al., summarizes trends and drivers of work and employment. The authors defend the idea that the future of work requires consideration of the dynamics of the socio-structural characteristics of farms alongside changes in farming practices and the diverse drivers of these processes. In the second paper, Losch analyses the perspectives of employment in agriculture and its connections with the rapid structural changes non-OECD countries are facing, notably in Africa. Criticizing the modernization paradigm in countries with limited services/industrial development and the dominant discourse on decent work (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2017), the author explores other options, notably

<footnote n="1">1 2nd International Symposium on Work in Agriculture. Available online at: https://www.workinagriculture.com/Symposium-2021.</footnote>
agroecology, to improve youth employment, which is a critical problem for many countries. Based on a scientific review of the Web of Science, Malanski et al. highlight in the third paper the understudied role of value chains on employment and working conditions through topics such as governance and social standards, income generation, and gender. While family farming is the dominant model in many rural areas, particularly in developing countries, Aubron et al. underline in the fourth paper the emergence of a new “patronal” model in India, combining family and hired workers. In the sixth paper, Lucas and Gasselin show how French farm machinery cooperatives foster agroecological transitions through the exchange of ideas and practices, not only concerning collective arrangements on work but also commercial activities. Serpossian et al. explore in the seventh paper how a French women-only professional group contributes to the transformation of women's work by elaborating questions and finding answers to communicational, technical, organizational, and social issues related to agroecological transition and empowerment perspectives. Ressia et al. debate in the ninth paper the leadership aspirations of Australian farm business' women within their profession. The authors analyze the resources that target their specific needs in simultaneously meeting their leadership aspirations and managing the mix of farm, family, community obligations, remoteness, and their economic and social contributions to the wider agricultural industry. As a conclusive paper, Dedieu et al. capitalize on the 2nd ISWA workshops and keynote presentations, suggesting the major issues for academics and practitioners to think about with respect to the future of work in agriculture. The paper considers the specificities of OECD and non-OECD countries but also the transversal topics that influence the perspectives on work in agriculture.

With this special issue, the editors aim to contribute to the exchange of ideas within the research community interested in the multiple facets of work and employment within the agricultural sector and associated value chains. The editors also aim to facilitate the emergence of a lasting transdisciplinary debate which may help to apprehend the changes characterizing agricultural work in a rapidly evolving world.

## Author contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication.

## Conflict of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

## Publisher's note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

## References

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2017). FAO Work to Promote Decent Rural Employment. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.