Gain without Pain

1.17 The drudgery of weeding is so ingrained into the lives of farmers in developing countries that weeds are taken for granted and often overlooked in pest surveys. And yet weeding by hand, typically carried out by women and children, accounts for 50% of the total labour inputs needed to produce a crop, deprives millions of children the joys of playtime – and often schooling – and adds to the already heavy burden of women in third-world agriculture. Like death and taxes, weeds are always present and they adversely affect the livelihoods and quality of life of so many of the world’s poorest people.