Nunhems' Child Care Initiatives

Child labor is deeply rooted in many societies and widespread around the world. In 2006, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) estimated that some 158 million children aged 5 to 14 were engaged in child labor in developing countries. This is particularly common in the poorer regions of the world, where children contribute to the families’ income from an early age. As a result, children and young people are often denied access to a proper school education and thus deprived of important career opportunities later in life.

Nunhems is strongly committed to protecting the rights of children in their sphere of influence. As a clear consequence of this commitment, we do not tolerate child labor anywhere in our global operations or supply chain processes.

Risk of child labor in hybrid vegetable seed production In contrast to self-pollinating crops, hybrid vegetable seed production for certain crops (for example tomato, watermelon or hot pepper) involves two additional manual steps: emasculation and pollination. These processes are needed to ensure a targeted crossing of previously chosen lines. The right father line needs to be crossed with the right mother line to result in a strong hybrid. As emasculation and pollination require minute handiwork and are usually limited to short periods of time in the production cycle, there is a risk that these tasks are sometimes carried out by children. This is particularly the case in regions with prevailing poverty and shortage of seasonal workers.		Hand-pollination by field workers in one of Nunhems' seed production nethouses in India.

Nunhems production experts offer growing advice to an Indian onion seed production grower.		Taking action for children’s education Under the umbrella of Bayer CropScience's Child Care Program, Nunhems is running several initiatives in India. Trained production workers raise awareness for children's rights during local grower meetings and offer continued guidance throughout the production season. Free puppet theater shows in Southern Indian seed production communities offer a fun and informal way to show how important a school education is for the future of children. Agreements with seed producers contain a clear “no child labor” clause. During the season, teams make several, unannounced visits to the production fields, checking the age of the people working there and see if the agreement is fulfilled on part of the grower.

Bonus payments for farmers who follow Nunhems' zero child labor policy serve as positive incentives, and the professional advice from Nunhems' production experts ensures better harvests and with it, higher revenues for the grower and less economic necessity for children to engage in field work during school hours.

Working together towards a bright future In 2009, the Nunhems Foundation started a cooperation in India with the educational department of Koppal (Karnataka state), and the non-governmental organization Sampark. "Prerane" - the Kannada word for "Inspiration" - is the name of their joint project that aims at improving the quality of education and reducing the number of drop-outs at selected high schools in the district. In the same year, Nunhems started another cooperation with the Socio-Economic Education and Development Society (SEEDS) in Koppal. Together they founded the Chiguru Residential Bridge School, an institution that supports former child laborers to cope with their gaps in education so they can reintegrate into school or learn a profession that will ensure an income for them.		Children at a Nunhems painting competition in May 2009. The children were asked to draw pictures about their perception of child labor and their aspirations for the future.