Source: The Conversation – France – By Alain Rival, Agronome. Agrosystèmes Biodiversifiés,, Cirad
Palm oil plantations, for one, are increasingly struggling with the sector’s declining attractiveness, which has hardly changed since the colonial era.
Behind basic foodstuffs like palm oil, cocoa, coffee and bananas that are part of our daily diet lies a rarely asked question. Who will agree to work in the fields of the world’s large tropical plantations in years to come? Since producing countries gained independence, the sectors that deal with field crop production have relied on a model largely inherited from the colonial period when export crops were produced for global markets, and their profitability long depended on abundant, compliant, and inexpensive labour.
But this model is running out of steam. While public debate around major tropical crop production sectors has long focused on environmental issues, the central challenge today is the social attractiveness of these horticultural systems.
Sectors shaped by their colonial history
Large-scale tropical agriculture was built on territorial specialisation and dependency on export. As we showed in a previous book about how human wellbeing is dependent on nature and how ecosystems function, independence did not fundamentally transform this productive logic, despite technical and institutional adjustments.
Power dynamics, labour organisation, and the priority given to external markets remain deeply structuring forces.
Oil palm in Southeast Asia, cacao in West Africa, and bananas in Latin America follow comparable trajectories, where environmental sustainability – supported by increasingly robust certification standards – has progressed more rapidly than the social transformation of these sectors.
This gap between a productive model inherited from colonial history and the social aspirations of contemporary rural societies in the tropics largely explains the current employment crisis that is affecting plantations.
Young people are turning away from plantation work
In Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s leading palm oil producers, plantations are now struggling to recruit locally. Research conducted by John McCarthy, a political scientist at the Australian National University, shows that rural youth are increasingly turning away from agricultural work, which is seen as physically demanding, socially undervalued, and poorly paid.
This hardship is compounded by still insufficient mechanisation in many tropical sectors. It also deepens gender inequalities: the most physically demanding tasks continue to fall largely to men, while women are frequently relegated to insecure and undervalued positions, with restricted access to wages and social protection. Moreover, they are expected to juggle plantation work alongside domestic responsibilities, which heightens exhaustion and reinforces economic dependence.
Over the past century, work in oil palm plantations has changed very little. It remains highly physical and poorly paid, with workers cutting and carrying heavy loads in isolated areas.
To maintain production, plantations increasingly rely on migrant labour, often vulnerable. In Southeast Asia, dependence on foreign workers in oil palm plantations varies widely by country. It is particularly high in Malaysia, where migrants account for about 70–80% of workers in the sector, mainly from Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and India. When foreign labour became unavailable during the Covid-19 pandemic, some large plantations tried to attract local workers – including former offenders – and offered free housing, but this was not enough to reverse the sharp decline in production.
By contrast, in Indonesia, production relies mainly on national labour, often from internal migration between islands, and the share of foreign workers remains marginal.
The question thus becomes crucial: would young Indonesian or Malaysian people willingly choose plantation work, unless compelled by geographic isolation or the lack of viable local economic alternatives? This growing disengagement poses a serious threat to the long-term social cohesion and productive stability of the tropical plantation industry.
Certifying sustainability: limited progress
In response to criticism – particularly regarding deforestation risks – the agricultural sectors have multiplied certification schemes. Sustainable palm oil, certified cocoa, or coffee promise traceability and improved environmental practices. These tools have enabled real progress, but they often leave labour issues aside.
Palm oil certification, notably through mechanisms such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), remains a long, complex, and costly process. It relies on demanding specifications, regular audits, and high traceability requirements, requiring substantial administrative and technical expertise. While large, agro-industrial companies can pool these costs and absorb the associated administrative burden, they represent a major obstacle for smallholders, who account for around 40% of Indonesia’s national palm oil production.
In many crop-producing regions, smallholders lack the time, financial resources, and support needed to achieve sustainable certification.
Audit costs, administrative complexity, and ongoing compliance requirements effectively exclude a large proportion of independent producers. The result is a paradox: the most vulnerable actors are also those who face the greatest difficulties in accessing mechanisms designed to improve sustainability, thereby reinforcing inequalities within the oil palm sector.
Sustainability is therefore still too often conceived at the level of the plot or the supply chain, without fully integrating employment conditions, career paths, and workers’ social prospects.
More demanding consumers, but not enough debate
Consumers are increasingly questioning the origin of tropical products and the transparency of production chains. However, this demand remains largely environmental. The issue of employment – its evolution and attractiveness – remains largely absent from public debate.
As Stefano Ponte, a specialist in global agricultural value chains, has analysed, this imbalance carries a major risk: without tangible improvements in working conditions, sustainability schemes may become mere compliance tools, without structural transformation of the sectors.
This reassessment also concerns organisations that monitor production and governance. Cooperatives, agro-industrial companies, and sectorial organisations play a key role in structuring employment, training, and professional recognition, yet they remain too rarely involved in sustainability strategies.
Rethinking attractiveness
The future of large plantations will depend less on yields than on their ability to attract and retain workers. Decent wages and working environment, appropriate mechanisation, access to training, and
social recognition of agricultural professions are becoming essential levers.
As emphasised by the FAO, rural employment is now a key factor in the sustainability of agricultural systems in tropical countries.
This is something not only farmers must reassess but also plantation managers and executives, who are having to rethink training and become more aware of social and environmental issues.
Initiatives such as the TALENT project, supported by the French Development Agency (AFD) and Cirad – The French agricultural research and international cooperation organisation working for the sustainable development of tropical and Mediterranean regions illustrate this shift by seeking to strengthen skills, career pathways, and the attractiveness of agricultural professions in Southeast Asia within a sustainability perspective.
A political issue before an agricultural one
Behind palm oil, cocoa, and coffee lies a fundamental political question: what will the future look like for postcolonial tropical societies?
Continuing to anchor these economies in export crops governed largely by an extractivist logic undermines their social appeal and compromises their long-term resilience.
The challenge, therefore, is not only how to produce more sustainably, but also who will keep production going tomorrow – and under what social and economic conditions.
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Alain Rival ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d’une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n’a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.
– ref. Palm oil, cocoa, coffee… who’s going to tend to tomorrow’s large tropical plantations? – https://theconversation.com/palm-oil-cocoa-coffee-whos-going-to-tend-to-tomorrows-large-tropical-plantations-278050