HERBICIDES in Asian rice - IRRI books - International Rice ...

EFFECTS ON SOCIETY AND ECOSYSTEMS
Social costs
Among the most important social issues associated with the spread of herbicides in
Asian rice production systems is its impact on the displacement of unskilled labor and
the consequent effect on rural communities. The creation of employment often is
considered to be in itself an objective of agricultural policy, particularly in densely
populated, poor areas with high levels of unemployment and underemployment. In
regions undergoing rapid economic growth, however, where there is a high opportunity
cost of labor (if labor has a high value in its next-best use), workers may be quite
happy to discard the arduous task of hand weeding and gain time for leisure or other
forms of employment. Rice farming will need to require less drudgery to become a
more attractive enterprise, particularly to young people who are increasingly migrating
to the cities to look for work.
The impact of herbicide adoption on rural labor markets must be considered in a
broad social and economic context. In the short run, the potential for labor displacement
throughout Asia is substantial, and could worsen income distribution in rural
areas. Field studies on Java show that certain groups of people, such as women over
the age of 50 who are unskilled and relatively immobile, are particularly vulnerable to
displacement by herbicides (Naylor 1992). Strong economic growth is required to
absorb displaced workers and compensate for the negative equity effects. Sustained
economic growth is especially important in the long run, since the adoption of technologies
to relieve drudgery tend to be irreversible. Once farmers have adopted herbicides,
they are not likely to go back to hand weeding, even if real wages fall.
Furthermore, the availability of effective and inexpensive herbicides might induce
farmers in some countries with slow economic growth, such as Bangladesh,
Laos, and Cambodia, to adopt chemical weed control, even though large supplies of
underemployed labor exist in the rural areas. In this case, the interaction between
technological development and factor market dynamics is critical. Development of
technologies that reduce farmers’ private costs (variable input and transaction costs)
might significantly raise social costs in some regions, especially if the adoption of
those technologies results in millions of unemployed laborers. When economic growth
is slow, laborers often welcome even drudgery tasks as a source of subsistence income.
In extremely stagnant or declining economies that have very limited employment
opportunities outside the rice sector, labor costs measured in social prices are close to
zero. In these cases, the social benefits of labor-intensive farm practices are relatively
high. As the opportunity cost of labor rises, the social benefit-cost ratio of hand weeding
in relation to chemical weed control falls. Naylor (1994a) used cost-benefit analysis
of experimental data on rice production and market wages for 1990 to show that
the social price of labor would have to be 25% of the market wage in the Philippines
and 50% of the market wage in Indonesia to make hand weeding as profitable socially
as herbicides.
10 Naylor