Speaker
Description
Keywords: household labour, labour requirements, adoption of sustainable practices
Introduction and Objective
In many developing countries, smallholder farmers rely heavily on family labour for agricultural activities. Depending on the cropping systems, tasks can include land preparation, planting, weeding, harvesting, and post-harvest processing. Therefore, the availability of household labour can influence decision-making on the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices that are often associated with higher labour demand (Dahlin and Rusinamhodzi, 2019). For instance, practices such as agroforestry or conservation agriculture may require more labour inputs compared to conventional methods that rely on high input use (Daum et al., 2023, Gallardo and Sauer, 2018). At the same time, there is an increasing call for a sustainable and agro-ecological transition of agriculture to limit biodiversity loss and climate change (Daum et al., 2023; Zabel et al., 2019). However, farmers with limited labour resources may face challenges in implementing such practices effectively.
Methods
To put this hypothesis to the test, we use two waves of a farm household survey of 365 cocoa producers in Ghana, collected in 2019 and 2022. A multi-stage sampling strategy was employed to develop the dataset. First, regions were purposefully chosen in cocoa growing areas of Ghana in which villages were then randomly selected from existing population census data. A comprehensive list of all cocoa farmers was compiled in the identified enumeration areas, from which cocoa farmers were then randomly selected for interviews.
We will apply a random effects model to assess whether the household dependency ratio (the ratio of working age adults to non-working age household members) is a determining factor for the use of sustainable agricultural practices. In the case of cocoa, we focus on three main agricultural practices that are often considered yield enhancing but are labour intensive: manual weeding, sanitary harvesting and organic fertilizer application. In the model, we include control variables at the individual, household and village level to account for other influencing factors on adoption decisions, such as participation in trainings or market access.
Expected findings
We expect households with a high dependency ratio to utilize less labour intense agricultural practices. Restrictions of manpower, time and the physical burden of labour influence the decision-making on practices employed in agricultural production (Moser and Barrett, 2006). Contrasting, we expect households with low dependency ratio and therefore a higher household labour availability to employ more labour intense practices. The panel structure of the data allows us to assess dynamic changes in the household composition in terms of the number of household members and their age patterns, and their effects practices application.
To address labour shortages of working-age adults, households employ different coping strategies, ranging from the use of household child labour, to informal labour exchange to paid casual or temporary labour (White et al., 2005). However, available paid workers in rural areas may be limited in Ghana. Some evidence suggests that labour demand in cocoa has increased more rapidly than the population growth rate (Abenyega and Gockowski, 2003). In recent years, trends such as rural-urban migration, the rise in non-agricultural work opportunities and increasing demand for child schooling has contributed to the labour scarcity particularly in rural areas (Dzanku and Tsikata, 2022).
We therefore aim to include measures of non-household labour availability in our analysis to assess the possibility of compensating for low numbers of household workers. We take into account the extent of off-farm work opportunities and migration patterns. With fewer casual or temporary workers available for potentially unattractive and burdensome agricultural activities, wages may increase to a point where employing help becomes unattainable for low-income producers.
This paper analyses the limitations of low labour availability in applying sustainable but labour-intensive agricultural practices. Calls for sustainable or agro ecological transitions of African agriculture should not rely on potentially outdated assumptions of labour availability in Sub-Saharan African agriculture. Instead, recommendations for sustainable practices should balance the goals of enhancing farm productivity and sustainability while taking into account labour-saving technologies to become feasible adoption decisions.
References
Abenyega, O. and Gockowski, J. (2003) Labor practices in the cocoa sector of Ghana with a special focus on the role of children. STCP/ IITA Monograph IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Dahlin, A.S. and Rusinamhodzi, L. (2019) Yield and labour relations of sustainable intensification options for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. A metaanalysis. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 39 (32), 1–18.
Daum, T., Baudron, F., Birner, R., Qaim, M. and Grass, I. (2023) Addressing agricultural labour issues is key to biodiversity-smart farming. Biological Conservation, 284, 110165.
Dzanku and Tsikata (2022) Implications of socioeconomic change for agrarian land and labour relations in rural Ghana. Journal of Rural Studies, 94, 385-398.
Gallardo, R.K. and Sauer, J. (2018) Adoption of labour-saving technologies in agriculture.
Annual Review of Resource Economics, 10, 185–206.
Moser, C.M. and Barrett, C.B. (2006) The complex dynamics of smallholder technology adoption: the case of SRI in Madagascar. Agricultural Economics, 35 (3), 373–388.
Zabel, F., Delzeit, R., Schneider, J.M., Seppelt, R., Mauser, W. and V´aclavík, T. (2019) Global impacts of future cropland expansion and intensification on agricultural markets and biodiversity. Nature Communications, 10 (1), 1–10.
