RA 00048.pdf - OAR@ICRISAT

why a substantial percentage of farming families
in the SAT regions supplement their income from
agriculture through working in other occupations
within or outside their home areas, particularly in
the dry season. 12 The severity and nature of labor
bottlenecks during the rainy season is determined
in part by the length of growing season (the
shorter it is the more peaked is labor activity), the
type of technology being used and the power
source (Norman et al. 1981). 13
This pronounced peaking of agricultural activities
in rainfed agriculture can complicate decisions
concerning research priorities. Whether or not
they should receive serious attention in research
design will depend on the local situation particularly
with respect to the land/labor ratios.
An example illustrating this pertains to one of
the very common labor bottlenecks in the SAT
regions involving weeding crops. Binswanger and
Shetty (1977) have looked at the potential for
herbicides solving this problem in India. An
investigation of current practices revealed important
information required in evaluating the potential
value of herbicides.' 4 They found farming
families, sensitive to the adverse impact of
weeds, rationally adjusted their weeding operations
according both to the severity of the
problem and to the potential payoff from weeding.
In general, there were high levels of interrow
cultivation with animal draft power and intrarow
cultivation with hand labor. Although labor requirements
for weeding operations were high, wage
rates are low at such times. Consequently, even
when all labor was costed at the market rate,
budget studies on the cost effectiveness of
herbicides indicated they were not competitive
12. Such work patterns, that on a monthly basis show a
negative correlation with agricultural activities on
family farms, are in contrast to the farm laboring
activities of the rural landless and land poor families
in India where the level of such work is positively
correlated with the agricultural cycle.
13. Labor bottlenecks can also be a function of the
aggregation period used for analyzing the data (e.g..
week or month). This can on occasion create
misleading impressions about the severity of the
labor bottlenecks. Where timing is a critical issue
(e.g., in the weeding operation) the aggregation
period should be shorter.
14. Value was estimated by looking at cost effectiveness
assuming that there were no yield effects of
different methods.
with current practices. Also much of the labor
provided for the weeding operation is contributed
by the most disadvantaged labor group in the
Indian economy, namely female agricultural laborers
from poorer families. Thus the societal costs
of introducing herbicides, in terms of displacing
labor, would be potentially very high. Not surprisingly
these findings have led ICRISAT to deemphasize
chemical weed control in the Indian part
of its research program (Binswanger and Ryan
1980).
The conclusion could well be different in areas
of lower population density (i.e., higher land/
resident ratios and no landless laboring class).
However, working with farmers in northern Nigeria,
where such conditions do in fact prevail,
Ogungbile (1980) still derived negative conclusions
concerning herbicides. Incorporating his
results into a dynamic linear programming model
he found that the discounted net incomes over a 5
year period were highest for farming families
using oxen, in the middle for those using hand
weeding only, and lowest for those using herbicides.
Although there were obviously problems
with the herbicide technology packages and the
farmers' application of them, 15 some legitimate
doubts can be raised about their always being
relevant even in areas where land/resident ratios
are higher. It is likely, for example, that herbicides
will only be profitable when combined with
yield-increasing technologies that usually involve
raising plant population densities and that, without
herbicides, require more intensive weeding.' 6 This
in fact is currently occurring to a small extent in
Mali Sud where yield-increasing cotton technology
has been so widely adopted. An additional
problem of using herbicides is finding those that
are suitable for use in crop mixtures so characteristic
of traditional systems of agriculture. A further
15. For example, the herbicides applied prior to planting
in the form of herbilizer were not always very
effective. In addition farmers often weeded before it
was really necessary, further decreasing the effectiveness
of the herbicides in reducing labor inputs.
16. For example, in India Binswanger and Shetty (1977)
found in some villages well over 5 0 % of the
sorghum fields were interrow cultivated with animal
draft three or more times while about 3 0 % of the
fields were hand weeded t w o or more times. In
contrast in northern Nigeria, many of the sorghum
fields are not weeded more than two times while
often no animal draft power is used.
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