This paper estimates the contribution of child labour to the formation of household income inrural enterprises. The contribution to household income from the employment of children comeseither from the employment on-farm at a shadow wage or off-farm in the agricultural or othersectors. The paper uses a cost function with household labour as a quasi-fixed factor in order toestimate the shadow wage for each component of the household labour force. The study alsoprovides an estimate of contribution of child labour to household income in the rural sector,both at the household and national level. A set of simulation also highlight the role that childlabour plays in insuring household subsistence and how it does affects income distribution