Agricultural Labor Demand Research Articles

Child Labour and the Arrival of Refugees: Evidence from Tanzania

Abstract Despite efforts to reduce the incidence of child labour, about one in three children in Sub-Saharan Africa works. Using data for the Kagera region of Tanzania, we estimate how rates of child labour were impacted by a large influx of refugees fleeing from genocide in both Rwanda and Burundi. We find that the areas most affected by this population shock initially had a lower incidence of child labour. However, 10 years later, children in these areas were more likely to work on a farm and participate in domestic chores as the demand for agricultural labour increased.

What Drives Youth Participation and Labour Demand in Agriculture? Evidence from Rural Nigeria

Employment creation, especially among the youth, remains a global issue. is study examines youth participation and labor demand in agriculture using the 2015/16 Living Standard Measurement Survey-Integrated Survey Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) data. e analytical tools employed in the study include descriptive statistics, Logistic and Tobit regression models. Summary statistics showed that males participate more than females in Nigerian agriculture. e farmers were small-holders. e results revealed low participation of youth in Nigerian agriculture. Farm size, access to credit and household size significantly influenced youth participation in Nigerian agriculture. Age, use of inorganic fertilizer, farm income, household size and cultivated farm size were labor enhancing. e study suggests that efforts to shape future work in Nigerian agriculture especially among youth should include among other things, access to land and provision of credit facilities.

Temperature, Labor Reallocation, and Industrial Production: Evidence from India

To what degree can labor reallocation mitigate the economic consequences of weather-driven agricultural productivity shocks? I estimate that temperature-driven reductions in the demand for agricultural labor in India are associated with increases in nonagricultural employment. This suggests that the ability of nonagricultural sectors to absorb workers may play a key role in attenuating the economic consequences of agricultural productivity shocks. Exploiting firm-level variation in the propensity to absorb workers, I estimate relative expansions in manufacturing output in more flexible labor markets. Estimates suggest that, in the absence of labor reallocation, local economic losses could be up to 69 percent higher. (JEL J23, J43, L60, O13, O14, Q54, Q56)

How land tenure and labor relations mediate charcoal’s environmental footprint in Zambia: Implications for sustainable energy transitions

• Land tenure and labor market conditions structure charcoal production’s environmental footprint in Zambia. • Charcoal is a one-off byproduct of agricultural conversion on customary and private lands, so from an unsustainable source. • Charcoal drives forest degradation in Forest Reserves (State Lands), with low regeneration potential. • Charcoal production creates a biomass loss of at least 50% from extraction of most tree species of all sizes (≥10 cm dbh). • Charcoal producers' effort responds to un(der)employment, specially during the season when agricultural labor demand wanes. Charcoal is the main cooking fuel in urban areas of sub-Saharan Africa and demand is expected to rise with urbanization. We explore the environmental footprint and socioeconomic drivers of charcoal production, using data from original field vegetation and producer surveys in a hotspot charcoal production area outside Lusaka, Zambia. We find that land tenure and labor market conditions structure the environmental footprint of charcoal production. Agricultural expansion is the main driver of forest conversion on customary and private (leasehold) lands where charcoal is a one-off byproduct of land-use change by farmers. By contrast, charcoal production drives forest degradation on State land, especially in Forest Reserves where agriculture is prohibited but the more intact forest is intensively harvested, largely by urban residents or, during the dry season, by nearby farmers lacking remunerative employment. Charcoal producers are remarkably varied, with sharp variation in net financial gains that are positively and significantly associated with volume produced. Strategies for improving the sustainability of charcoal production differ by land tenure type but require a combination of enhanced enforcement of existing land use restrictions, improved labor market conditions, greater support for sustainable agricultural intensification, devolution of forest management to more local level, and adoption of alternative cooking fuel sources by urban residents.

The Use of Draught Animals in Rural Labour.

Simple SummaryAlthough mechanisation has markedly reduced animal labour demand in agriculture, draught animals are still used in small production units located on terrains that do not favour agriculture mechanisation. Especially in Africa, Latin America, and Asia, they represent one of the main sources of sustenance for thousands of families who utilise animal labour in numerous agricultural tasks, such as ploughing and harvesting, as well as means of transport and hauling. Depending on the geographic area, the species involved are equids (horses, donkeys, and mules) and bovids (buffaloes and cattle). Draught animals proved to be sustainable in terms of global warming and the use of non-renewable energy as compared with agricultural machinery. However, critical points are the quality of human–animal interaction, due to the close contact between animals and humans while working, and the welfare of draught animals when transported and slaughtered, due to the high prevalence of injuries they suffer when subjected to these practices. Therefore, their use should be promoted in rural marginal areas where only low investments are usually feasible, and the energy of the animals can be obtained at a low cost by feeding them harvest residues and by-products.This study discusses scientific findings on the use of draught animals such as equids (i.e., horses, mules, and donkeys) and bovids (i.e., cattle and water buffaloes) in rural labours. Relevant peer-reviewed literature published between 1980 and 2021 was retrieved from CAB s, PubMed, ISI Web of Knowledge, and Scopus databases. Although animals were used to produce draught power since their domestication and are still being used for this purpose, mechanisation has markedly reduced animal labour demand in agriculture. However, the process was uneven across continents according to economic constraints, and draught animals are currently concentrated in small production units located on terrains that do not favour agriculture mechanisation in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Generally, equids can work at rates similar to those of bovids or faster but can sustain the work for shorter periods of time. In addition, buffaloes possess tough hooves and resistance to disease that make them suitable for working in wetlands and clay soils. Draught animals allow a marked reduction of both GHG emissions and non-renewable energy consumption as compared with agricultural machinery. In addition, they may allow obtaining profits from otherwise non-usable lands. Therefore, their use should be promoted in rural areas where low investments are usually the only ones feasible, and the energy of the animals can be obtained at a low cost by feeding them harvest residues and by-products. However, more attention should be paid to the quality of human–animal interactions—due to the close contact between animals and humans while working—and to the welfare of draught animals when transported and slaughtered—due to the high prevalence of injuries they suffer when subjected to these practices.

Peasant farmers and pandemics: the role of seasonality and labor-leisure trade-off decisions in economy-wide models

Pandemics attack the primary asset (labor) of peasant households and the rural poor. Peasant households must simultaneously allocate labor between farm and household activities, where the demand for agricultural labor is seasonal, which limits intra-temporal substitution, without perfect foresight. A pandemic reduces the supply of labor, through deaths and morbidity, with the scale of reductions in labor supply depending on the seasons in which a pandemic occurs. The analyses, using a recursive dynamic economy-wide model for Bhutan, demonstrate that outbreaks in high labor demand seasons cause increases in wage rates almost three times as high as for outbreaks in low labor demand seasons. Increases in wage rates induce peasant households to reallocate labor time between farm and household activities through the labor-leisure trade-off mechanism. Such changes in the allocation of labor time are important elements of peasants’ mitigation responses, and can reduce the negative economic implications of a pandemic.

دراسة إقتصادية تحليلية للترکيب الهيکلي لسوق العمل بالقطاع الزراعي المصري

يAgricultural production is characterized by seasonality that leads to an imbalance in agri-cultural labor market. However, this is pre-sumably due to the imbalance between the sea-sonal agricultural labor demand and supply, thus, resulting seasonal unemployment. This paper aims to investigate and analyze the struc-ture of Egyptian agricultural labor market throughout the period 2000-2020 via employ-ing econometric tools. The results show that, the agricultural disguised employment does not consider permeant agricultural labor its source, but rather it is due to seasonal agricul-tural employment, due to its negative marginal productivity, in which is the main cause for disguised unemployment appearance.

The Impact of the Renaissance Dam Crisis on Cropping Pattern and the Employment in the Agricultural Sector in Egypt

Agriculture is the main water consumer in Egypt, accounting for 77% of the available water resources, amounting to about 81 billion m3 in 2018, but it faces internal and external challenges that hinder its future development, whether due to increased demand for it or the potential effects for building and operating the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. This may affect Egypt's annual share of the Nile River water, representing about 71% of the total water supply. Therefore, the research is aimed to study the current and future status of the Egyptian water resources, and the expected economic effects of the scenarios for filling the dam, on the cropping pattern and agricultural employment.The study showed many important results including: The water deficit of the agricultural sector according to the three scenarios of filling the dam in (three years, five years, and seven years) estimated at 14.5, 8.7, and 6.22 billion m3, respectively. This was reflected in the decrease in the crop area at a decrease rate representing about 21.81%, 15.48%, and 9.85%, respectively, compared to the current situation. Also, it was reflected in reducing the rates of demand for agricultural labor and thus increasing unemployment rates in the future by about 24.79%, 19.5%, and 13.73%, respectively; Finally, decline the total return according to the three scenarios of filling the dam in by 4.52%, 9.36%, and 21.22% compared to the current situation, respectively.

Temperature, Labor Reallocation, and Industrial Production: Evidence from India

To what degree can labor reallocation mitigate the economic consequences of weather-driven agricultural productivity shocks? I estimate that temperature-driven reductions in the demand for agricultural labor in India are associated with increases in non-agricultural employment. This suggests that the ability of non-agricultural sectors to absorb workers may play a key role in attenuating the economic consequences of agricultural productivity shocks. Exploiting firm-level variation in the propensity to absorb workers, I estimate relative expansions in manufacturing output in more flexible labor markets. Estimates suggest that, in the absence of labor reallocation, local economic losses could be up to 69% higher.

Long-Term Trends and Policy Challenges in Chilean Agricultural Labor Markets

This paper identifies the major long-term trends in agricultural labor markets in Chile. The document shows the increasing aging, feminization, and seasonality of the agricultural labor force. Long-term projections are made regarding the evolution of labor supply and demand based on demographic and economic trends. These projections suggest the continuation of the already existing trends of a decreasing supply of labor and an increasing demand for agricultural labor, mostly driven by the substitution of crops into labor-intensive but higher-value export crops. Hence, the paper predicts a continuation of the trend of rapidly increasing labor costs in agriculture. The paper discusses the challenges imposed on farmers and policy-makers of confronting these rapidly growing labor costs by continually raising farm labor productivity.

Is There a Rainbow after the Rain? How Do Agricultural Shocks Affect Non‐Farm Enterprises? Evidence from Thailand

Increasing weather volatility manifesting itself through extreme rainfall and drought poses a significant threat to the livelihood of rural households in poor countries. Although it is documented how rainfall shocks affect agricultural activities, there is not much evidence on the indirect effects on the rest of the rural economy. Merging household panel data with grid‐level precipitation data, we study the indirect effects of rainfall shocks on non‐farm enterprises in rural Thailand. We not only consider the effects on labor supply to non‐farm enterprises but also focus on the performance of non‐farm enterprises. We find that households increase their labor participation in non‐farm self‐employment in response to excessive rainfall shocks. We do not find such a response for deficit rainfall shocks, which we explain by the increased demand for agricultural labor needed to cope with rainfall shortages. We also find suggestive evidence that rainfall shocks lead to increased input costs for non‐farm enterprises in the food processing industry, to higher input costs for farms, to higher sales revenues for agriculture‐related non‐farm enterprises and to lower expenditures for farm households on food and other consumption items. Overall, our analysis suggests that the costs of agricultural shocks are higher than what much of the literature has suggested so far. Despite limited market integration in poor rural economies, the spillovers are sizable and are transmitted through various channels. One implication is that safety nets targeted at farms may need to consider non‐farm enterprises too.

Agrarian Transformation and Changing Labour Relations in Kalahandi, Odisha

Examining the changes in production relations in one of the poorest rainfed belts in India, this study, based on field surveys in eight villages in Kalahandi and Nuapada districts of Odisha, unravels the complexities of the transition in agriculture. The introduction of irrigation has resulted in, an increase in yield, wage rates and labour-use per hectare. Comparison between the irrigated and the non-irrigated villages also suggest a drastic reduction in poverty and distress seasonal out-migration. The average household income in the irrigated villages turns out to be more than three times that of the rainfed villages. Thus, irrigation has acted as a key driver of agrarian change, and its role in creating labour demand in agriculture continues to be significant. However, the reduced control of marginalised sections over land, the significance of sharecropping in the irrigated villages, the high share of family labour in total labour-use among the marginal and small cultivators in the irrigated region, and moreover, the continued presence of labour-tying suggest that, the transformation involves several complexities, particularly in terms of the newly emerging labour relations.

Reap what you sow: Agricultural technology, urbanization and structural change

This paper studies how productivity-enhancing agricultural technology affects urbanization by provoking structural change. We investigate these issues using a natural experiment in the United States. The results show that technologies which improve crop productivity lead to a less urbanized economy as economic activity relocates from manufacturing and services towards agriculture. The effects are highly persistent and are driven by the technology increasing agricultural labor demand. Our findings highlight the potentially unintended, disruptive force of innovative technologies.

SIMULTANEOUS EQUATIONS MODEL FOR LABOR MARKET IN THE EGYPTIAN AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

The problem of research is the low and low wages in the agricultural sector, which makes it an employment sector, indicating that there is imbalance in the structure of the labor market in the agricultural sector, and thus the current deviation of agricultural employment from the optimum level that achieves economic efficiency, hence the main objective of The research is to assess the equilibrium situation of the labor market in the Egyptian agricultural sector, and determine the most important factors affecting it, through the study of both sides of the demand and supply of agricultural labor through Simultaneous Equations Model. The most important results obtained were: 1 - For the function of demand for agricultural labor: It was found from the estimated equation that the increase in the wages of the agricultural worker by one pound leads to a significant statistical decrease at a significant level of 5% in the demand for agricultural labor by about 135 thousand workers, as shown from the estimated equation Effect of production value Agricultural demand for agricultural employment amounted to about 29.7 thousand workers million workers. The impact of the supply of agricultural labor in the demand for agricultural labor, which reached about 645 thousand workers, was also shown. 2- For the agricultural labor supply function, the estimated equation shows that increasing demand for agricultural labor leads to an increase in the supply of agricultural labor by 1 million and 9,000 workers. It is also shown from the estimated equation that increasing the wage of the agricultural worker by one pound leads to an increase in the supply of agricultural labor by about 39 thousand workers. 3- As for the equilibrium situation of the labor market in the Egyptian agricultural sector, it was found that the wage of the agricultural worker amounted to about 43.338 thousand pounds / year, ie about 118.73 pounds / day, which is different from the actual situation of the wage of the agricultural worker, which averaged 26.164 thousand pounds / year Ie about 71.68 pounds / day as an average for the last three years. This means that the wage of the worker in the agricultural sector is less than the equivalent of 47.05 pounds per day. In addition, the total number of agricultural workers in the agricultural sector reached about 6.34 million workers, which differs from the actual situation of the supply of agricultural labor which reached 7.780 million workers as an average for the last three years. This means increasing the supply of agricultural labor to the balanced size of agricultural labor by (1.44 million workers), which explains the low wages in the agricultural sector, in order to load the agriculture sector with a larger number of workers than is supposed to be and hence the low wage in the agricultural sector and thus become an employment sector that will negatively affect the attractiveness of investments in the agricultural sector Which represents a sector Wide in the Egyptian economy is not negligible.

Tractors, Power Lines, and the Welfare State: The Contradictions of Soviet Development in Post-World War II Tajikistan

Abstract This article considers the Soviet campaign to transform the Tajik countryside by mechanizing agricultural production and bringing the welfare state to the villages in light of broader 20th century rural development efforts. It begins by examining the attempt to mechanize agriculture and electrify the Tajik countryside through the eyes of the officials charged with implementing these technologies. Problems with how these technologies were introduced meant that while cotton output expanded, it required increasing amount of labor. Turning to the problem of resettlement, the article emphasizes that resettlement was shaped by competition for labor between districts and farm managers. Increasingly, in the Brezhnev era, it also came to be seen as an easier way to fulfill the modernizing imperative and the commitments of the welfare state. Under pressure to ensure access to schools and medical services, officials found it more convenient to move villages from mountain areas to valleys where such services could be more easily provided. At the same time, the demand for agricultural labor stimulated a kind of “involution” in the countryside, where managers had to find ways to keep labor on the farm. To do so, they could offer cash rewards, building materials, and access to private land and fertilizer.

Supermarkets and agricultural labor demand in Kenya: A gendered perspective

Many developing countries are experiencing a rapid expansion of supermarkets. New supermarket procurement systems could affect farming patterns and wider rural development. While previous studies have analyzed farm productivity and income effects, possible employment effects have received much less attention. Special supermarket requirements may entail intensified farm production and post-harvest handling, thus potentially increasing demand for hired labor. This could also have important gender implications, because female and male workers are often hired for distinct farm operations. Building on data from a recent survey of vegetable farmers in Kenya, a double-hurdle model of hired labor use is developed and estimated. Farmer participation in supermarket channels increases the likelihood of hiring labor by 20%, and demand for hired labor by 61%. A gender disaggregation shows that positive employment effects are especially pronounced for female laborers, who often belong to the most vulnerable population groups. Rural employment generation can be an important vehicle for poverty reduction.

The End of Farm Labor Abundance

AbstractAn analysis of nationally representative panel data from rural Mexico, with observations in years 2002, 2007, and 2010, suggests that the same shift out of farm work that characterized U.S. labor history is well underway in Mexico. Meanwhile, the demand for agricultural labor in Mexico is rising. In the future, U.S. agriculture will compete with Mexican farms for a dwindling supply of farm labor. Since U.S. domestic workers are unwilling to do farm work and the United States can feasibly import farm workers from only a few countries in close geographic proximity, the agricultural industry will eventually need to adjust production to use less labor. The decline in foreign labor supply to farms in the United States ultimately will need to be accompanied by farm labor conservation, switching to less labor intensive crops and technologies, and labor management practices that match fewer workers with more farm jobs.

Transient Health Shocks and Agricultural Labor Demand in Rice-producing Households in Mali

Malaria and other transient illnesses have been recognized as factors constraining economic development in tropical countries. The purpose of this paper is to determine the direct and the indirect impact of transient illness shocks, caused primarily by malaria but also including other tropical illness, on family labor use in irrigated rice production in Mali. Family labor is the most important factor of production used in rice production in Mali and transient illness shocks may negatively impact labor supply, production and hence household welfare derived from agricultural income and consumption. Two labor demand models are estimated to determine whether illness does indeed reduce labor supply: one where the dependent variable only includes family labor and a second that combines family and hired labor. These models can be used to test two sets of hypotheses on the relationship between illness and labor supply. First, we hypothesize that short-term transient illness shocks affect household labor supply implying that intrahousehold coping mechanisms are not wholly effective. Secondly, we hypothesize that hired labor markets are ineffective in mitigating illness shocks. We find that direct and indirect health shocks reduce the effective supply of labor and that neither household nor market supply of labor can effectively mitigate these shocks.

Evaluating the Green Revolution after a decade: a Swaziland case study

This paper analyses the impact of the Komati Pilot Project (KPP) upon members and their neighbours. The KPP was a Government of Swaziland (GoS)-financed irrigation scheme that enabled 43 subsistence and semi-subsistence farmers to change from rain-fed maize and cotton to irrigated sugar cane. It provides an opportunity to evaluate the impact of Green Revolution technology upon an African rural community where adopters and non-adopters live close together and where little income differentiation existed prior to the development because the common experience was poverty. A baseline survey of the KPP was carried out in 1997 in advance of the Komati Downstream Development Project. Of concern are the extent and direction of any trickle-down effects from the KPP participants for their neighbours and the consequences of any such impacts 10 years after the project started producing sugar cane. The expectation of the GoS was that sugar cane would benefit KPP participants and neighbours creating a multiplier effect through increased demand for services and increased demand for agricultural labour. Ten years later, these expectations are unrealized.

The Maquiladora Industry: Recent Downturn And Future Prospects

The Maquiladora industry was created in the mid-1960 as the United States terminated the Bracero program. The main objective of the Bracero program was to bring in Mexican workers to fulfill U.S. agricultural labor demand. The end of the Bracero program left thousands of unemployed farm workers in Mexican cities bordering the U.S. The Maquiladora programs intent was to subsidize foreign manufacturers that set up plants on the Mexico side of the border to create jobs for the Mexican workers. Mexico allowed plants to temporarily import supplies, parts, machinery, and equipment necessary to produce goods and services in Mexico duty-free as long as the output was exported back to the United States. U.S. firms, as well as other multinational companies, responded enthusiastically to the lure of cheap labor. Mexico experienced high economic growth and become a major player in exporting intra-industry products to the U.S. The NAFTA and other free trade agreements signed by Mexico helped the economic growth of the Maquiladora region. Maquiladora employment increased significantly since the inception of the Maquiladora industry and Maquiladora exports now account for half of Mexicos total exports. The Maquiladora industry is U.S.-demand driven since most of Mexicos Maquiladora production is destined for the U.S. market. The recent recession in the U.S. took a heavy toll on Mexicos Maquiladora industry. Another challenge to the Maquiladora industry is raising global competition, particularly from China. Therefore, the magnitude of the industrys contraction during the most recent recession suggests that there are more factors influencing the industry than just the business cycle. This paper presents the creation of the Maquiladora industry, its success following the NAFTA agreement, and its recent downturn. It also explores the answers to the following questions: How much of the Maquiladora downturn was due to the business cycle? How much was due to structural change? Is the Maquiladora industry ready to face rising global competition?