The term labour intensive is sometimes used to describe production systems or technologies that require a lot of labour. In technical economic terms, “labour-intensive” is contrasted with “capital-intensive”, but the term is often used more loosely, without any particular yardstick of measurement. Intensifying the use of labour may also be regarded as a strategy for dealing with shortages of land. In general, introducing a more labour-intensive technology needs to be treated with caution. There is a view that this is more the case in Africa, where labour is a more limiting factor to agricultural production than land, than in Asia, where the reverse is true, but this generalization also has to be treated critically.
The variation in the need for labour by livestock production, cropping and non-agricultural labour across the seasons is very important. If there are existing “labour bottlenecks” at certain times of year, this will severely the uptake of new technologies if they too require labour at this time of year.
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| Quantifying Labour Use |
Much labour in smallstock production is the unpaid labour of family members (though some traditional smallstock systems may use waged herders). To evaluate new technologies or production systems, compare them to existing technologies or assess the impact on them of other economic or demographic changes, it may be important to give an economic value to this unpaid labour – this value can (loosely) be referred to as a shadow wage.
It may be possible to quantify the amount of labour used in smallstock production, by methods such as asking household members to keep diaries or fill in pre-designed forms, or by research assistants directly observing labour use on sampled days. It may then be possible to calculate total labour per day or week of different household members, or labour per head of livestock or per unit of output, and to carry out various economic analyses, using actual wage rates for hired employees, or shadow wage-rates for unpaid family members. However, recording labour-use and analyzing such data is fraught with methodological difficulties (it is itself labour intensive!). There are a number of other problems with using labour time in economic calculations.
It is possible in principle to use wage-rates from other sectors, such as that for hired labour on crops or in construction, to estimate shadow wage-rates. However in some societies there are so few opportunities for wage labour that such a process would involve a chain of tenuous assumptions.
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The Division of Labour and Different Valuations of Labour |
In many societies, there is an inflexible division of labour where certain tasks are considered appropriate for children, adults and the elderly; for people of different castes or social or ethnic groups; and most importantly for males and females. The latter is often referred to as a gender division of labour. A division of labour in a particular society should be seen as a social institution, not a fact of nature. While there is some trend towards men being associated with tasks involving more physical strength, such as care of cattle, in some societies such tasks may be associated with women (women of course carry out many very arduous tasks not involving livestock, such as water-carrying). Some societies may have a more flexible division of labour with more tasks regarded as appropriate for both sexes, or as possible for one sex to do in the absence of the other.
Where there is an inflexible division of labour this may effect the uptake of technology. It will also be difficult to attach an economic value to labour across the genders (or other groups), and people may not understand why researchers or development agents view the labour of men and women, or different social groups, as comparable. But if outsiders attach different economic values to the labour of men and women, this brings in ethical as well as methodological questions – should a technology that increases female labour be viewed as more appropriate than one that increases male labour?. Similarly the issue of child labour, and its compatibility with schooling, needs sensitive handling.
People may value different sorts of labour in different ways, whereas economic analysis would see them as equivalent. For example, people may have very different evaluations of repetitive, static work (such as chopping fodder), and mobile work which involves the use of intelligence and knowledge (such as extensive herding). Time-consuming, repetitive and arduous work is sometimes referred to as “drudgery”. Women may value work more highly (or regard it as less of a problem) if it can be combined easily with child care. Both men and women may favour work that can be done in company. Certain sorts of work, such as supervising scavenging poultry, may be so intermittent that people may not regard them as work at all and may be surprised when outsiders do so.
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| Migration, HIV/AIDS and Labour |
Labour migration to towns, commercial agriculture etc. will have an effect on the use of labour in livestock production. As labour migration is largely practised by men, to a great extent this will depend on what livestock tasks are considered appropriate for women and children, and how inflexible this division of labour is. In many circumstances labour migration will increase the importance of smallstock production as it will be considered suitable for women and children. In other circumstances women may take over roles in cattle production and even in draught animal use, previously associated with men.
The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa is reducing the availability of labour, particularly the labour of adult men. This will limit the chances of uptake of technologies that are more labour-intensive, and create a demand for technologies that are less intensive of labour, to mitigate the effects of the epidemics. There will be a particular demand for technologies which allow the substitution of the labour of women and children for that of men, and which are flexible in that they can be combined with other household tasks, including caring for the sick and attending funerals. It is increasingly thought that smallstock production will have a special role here.
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Investigating Labour |
Researchers and development agents must take their own decisions as to how deeply they investigate labour. However, it will be essential to have some understanding of what livestock production tasks are regarded as appropriate for men, women and children, what tasks are carried out at different times of year, and what times of year are the busiest.
PRA techniques, especially seasonal calendars and of course semi-structured interviewing, will be useful here. A general participatory orientation will be useful in finding out if particular labour issues, such as the avoidance of drudgery, or combining production labour with household labour, are important to people. The possibilities (and problems) of investigating labour use in a more structured way have already been mentioned.
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| References and Further Reading |
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There is no concise introduction to the many different aspects of labour that are relevant to livestock production, still less smallstock production. Two useful references on pastoralism (not small-stock specific) are: |
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Morton, J. (1990). Aspects of Labour in An Agro-pastoral Economy: The Northern Beja of Sudan. ODI Pastoral Network Paper 30b.
For abstract: http://www.odi.org.uk/pdn/papers/paper30b.html
For full paper: http://www.odi.org.uk/pdn/papers/30b.pdf
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Sikana, P. and Kerven, C. (1991). The Impact of Commercialisation on the Role of Labour in African Pastoral Societies. ODI Pastoral Network Paper 31c.
For abstract: http://www.odi.org.uk/pdn/papers/paper31c.html.
For full paper: http://www.odi.org.uk/pdn/papers/31c.pdf
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| A useful reference on women’s labour and the issue of drudgery, from outside the livestock sector, is: |
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Gordon, A., Swetman, T. and Albright, K. (2002). Women in Post-Harvest Operations: reducing the Drudgery CPHP Issues Paper No.6 , DFID Crop Post-Harvest Programme, 2002.
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