| Sumario: | Key takeaways
• True cost accounting allows for the measurement of hidden impacts of food production on the environment, human health, and society.
• Our findings show that at the national level for all crop sectors:
o Social costs account for 90% and environmental for 10% of external cost structure.
o Major social cost sources are underpayment, child labor, and occupational health risks.
o Major environmental cost sources are land-use expansion and climate change.
• Findings at farm level in NATURE+ Initiative sites in Kajiado, Kisumu, and Vihiga, for the crop sector show that:
o Direct costs (70% of true costs) are predominantly hired labor and seed costs
o External costs represent about 30% of the true costs
o Social externalities costs (84%) are greater than environmental costs (16%)
o Forced labor is the most important impact, followed by child labor, underpayment, and gender wage gaps
o Environmental externalities include land occupation (land use) and soil degradation
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