The influence of smallholder labour demand on cultivation of cash crops in northern Mozambique

Abstract

Labour is one of the most important factors affecting smallholder cultivation of cash crops. Available household labour (AHL), crop labour requirements (CLR) and the ratio AHL:CLR were analysed from data collected from 287 households in the southern Niassa province of Mozambique. The study confirms that, other factors being held constant, crop labour requirements were positively related to the number of households rejecting or discontinuing certain cash crops owing to lack of available labour. Weeding was the most labour-intensive operation, followed by harvesting, preparing soil, transporting produce, clearing land and preparing seedlings. The following labour-dependent factors can be estimated: (i) the total area a household can cultivate, (ii) the area that can be allocated to food crops for consumption, (iii) the area that can be allocated to cash crops, (iv) the proportion of households that can cultivate cash crops, and (v) the proportion of households that are unlikely to produce sufficient food for household consumption.

¹Respectively, Country FEWS NET Representative, Angola Ministerio de Agricultura e Desenvolvimento Rural, Luanda, Angola; Professor and Head of Discipline, Community Resources, School of Agricultural Sciences and Agribusiness, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg; and Director (Teaching and Learning) and Academic Director (Extension & Resource Management), Centre for Environment, Agriculture and Development, School of Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.

Notes

¹Respectively, Country FEWS NET Representative, Angola Ministerio de Agricultura e Desenvolvimento Rural, Luanda, Angola; Professor and Head of Discipline, Community Resources, School of Agricultural Sciences and Agribusiness, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg; and Director (Teaching and Learning) and Academic Director (Extension & Resource Management), Centre for Environment, Agriculture and Development, School of Environmental Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.

¹The authors are aware that smallholders' involvement in the cultivation of cash crops is better represented by the income they earn from these crops. However, income was not assessed in this study.

²More than seven routes and railways from Nampula, Zambezia, Cabo Delgado and Niassa provinces, as well as from Malawi, converge in Cuamba. Most of the agribusiness companies are based in the city of Cuamba, giving this district a competitive advantage over the surrounding districts and allowing smallholders to employ as ganho-ganho people who come here in search of better conditions. Newcomers often first work as ganho-ganho before they cultivate their own fields in the following years.

³Lowland is land near a superficial or groundwater source that maintains enough water in the soil to sustain crop production during the dry season.

⁴With an average yield of 600 kg/ha, a household will need 1.2 ha per year to produce 715 kg of maize required for consumption (715 kg/year/600 kg/ha year) (Akesson, 1994).