UNITED NATIONS, June 15 -- A new guide issued Monday by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) aims to help ensure anti-child labor measures are included in agricultural and rural development programs, in particular those targeting family farmers in an effort to tackle a problem that affects some 100 million children globally.

The FAO's Handbook for Monitoring and Evaluation of Child Labor in Agriculture will seek to fill the gaps in many agricultural development programs which fail to monitor or evaluate the impact they have on child labor, especially in those communities where increased labor demands are met through child workers, said a press release issued here.

Programs intended to boost local food production and support family farmers often do include components to address the issue of child labor in agriculture. But sometimes they do not, and can even contribute to the problem when improvements in productive capacity lead to increased labor demands that are met through child workers.

And many agricultural development programs do not monitor or evaluate the impact they have or may have on child labor. FAO's new guide seeks to fill these gaps.

Worldwide, large numbers of children are involved in agricultural work. This is normal on family farms and - provided it stays within acceptable boundaries -- is not only beneficial for the farm but also allows children to acquire valuable knowledge and skills.

For about 100 million children, however, such work goes beyond what is acceptable - interfering with schooling or involving them in work that is hazardous and damaging to their health.

The handbook provides an easy-to-use toolkit of research and data collection methods for assessing child labor in agriculture and the impacts that various types of development programs can have. Additionally, it encourages the identification and use of good practices to prevent child labor.

The 100-page handbook, developed in partnership with the Berlin- based Humboldt University, also offers practical advice on how to collect information to track the impact of child labor on school performance and health.

The new guide is intended for use by agricultural organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), international organizations, agricultural ministries, policy-makers, and other actors involved in agricultural programs, be they related to crop production, fisheries and aquaculture, forestry or livestock-raising.

"In recent years, we have seen an increase in awareness of child labor and its role in producing export crops such as cocoa, coffee and cotton," said Rob Vos, director of FAO's Social Protection Division, said in the press release. "As a result, we see much more effective action to prevent child labor in these value chains. However, child labor on family farms not connected to international commodity markets has remained largely untouched. The new guide tries to fill this void."

The new guide highlights the need to address child labor in family farming in an appropriate and context-sensitive way that respects local values and family circumstances. Social protection and poverty reduction programs can be particularly effective in helping poor families to send their children to school and to avoid exposing them to hazardous work on the farm.

Promotion of labor-saving technologies can further help prevent child labor in agriculture by reducing the need for children's inputs while safer agricultural practices will reduce hazardous working conditions for all.

FAO developed the new guide in partnership with Humboldt University of Berlin.

On Tuesday, FAO will launch a new "Family Farming platform" intended to serve as an online hub for information, best practices, statistics and more related to family farming.