download - SPGS

HeartWood No. 6 (2010)
TRAINING, LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY AND
SITE CLASSIFICATION
Earlier in 2010, SPGS commissioned some
important studies in areas identified as crucial
to the long-term success of commercial tree
growers. Draft reports have just (August,
2010) been received from the first batch of
these studies – namely:
Training Needs Assessment by UNIQUE
Forestry Consultants – Grit Techel, Kai
Windhorst and Jochen Statz.
Labour Productivity and Work Study by
Rory McCaughan, an independent forestry
consultant from Ireland.
Developing a Site Classification System
for Species Matching in Uganda by Dr.
Colin Smith, a private forestry consultant
from South Africa.
NB. Once these reports have been finalized,
they will be available to view/download
at www.sawlog.ug In the meantime we
have summarized their key findings below
to hopefully stimulate some thought and
debate from readers. Please send feedback to
info@sawlog.ug – put TA in subject box.
TRAINING NEEDS
UNIQUE were requested to assess the training
needs of the sector and the institutional
training capacities of the main players.
Three main focus groups were identified
– managers, supervisors and contractors.
SPGS’s training programme and materials and
other existing or potential training providers
were also assessed.
Many of the challenges named by the three
focus groups tended to be very similar,
being related to planning, plantation
establishment, maintenance and protection
and marketing of products or services. Other
challenges are supervision and monitoring
of work. Interestingly, here disagreements
occur between the three groups, in particular
between contractors and investors.
Insufficient communication, communication
structure and contract negotiation were cited
as the main issues.
Training needs expressed by the target groups
were as follows:
• Technical skills relating to plantation
establishment and maintenance, fire
protection, nursery operations, harvesting
operations, plantation monitoring
(inventory) and pests and diseases.
• Planning on both the administrative and
the operational level.
• Business skills, referring to business
management, contract management,
labour management and computer skills.
UNIQUE’s findings on the training providers
were particularly interesting:
SPGS: The training courses SPGS provides are
highly valued by all participants. Additionally,
exposure visits like the Clients’ meetings
and direct feedback from inspection visits
are also building capacity in the sector. The
individual workload of each staff member
is high, meaning that the organisation is
currently stretched to its limits. There is
demand for specialized courses and refresher
courses as the structure is of the commercial
plantation sector is maturing. Hence there is
need to identify other institutions to include
in longer term training plans.
UTGA: at present UTGA does not have
the organisational capacity or in-house
experience to offer training. Nonetheless it
can play an important part in facilitating
efforts of clients to organize training courses
themselves.
Makerere University’s Faculty of
Forestry: The Faculty is restricted by lack
of infrastructure and also the lack of staff
with appropriate experience, which hinders
training of managers and supervisors. The
more theoretical training courses, however,
could be held within the Faculty’s premises
e.g. plantation costing and planning.
Nyabyeya Forestry College: NFC has
extensive forest land - mostly planted with
pines and eucalypts. However, the stands are
of poor quality. Also the technology used
and standards are not always up to date or
in accordance with SPGS’s guidelines. Many
staff have had very little experience with
commercial plantations.
Other recommendations:
• Contractors are of increasing importance
for the sector. Their skills in business and
labour management need to be improved
immediately.
• SPGS staff need to specialize further,
particularly with regard to the more
sophisticated and increasing training
needs of investors, plantation managers
and contractors.
• The potential of the private sector needs
mobilizing by facilitating coordination of
private sector training or helping to set up
Public Private Partnerships.
LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY
SPGS staff identified problems with low labour
productivity and also that there was little
– if any - historical data upon which to base
expected labour productivity or daily task
rates for labourers. In order to rectify this,
SPGS invited Mr Rory McCaughan to assist
them and also to train SPGS staff in Work
Study techniques. Rory is an experienced,
practical forester who at one time was
Mondi’s Work Study man in South Africa and
Swaziland. After visiting a selection of SPGS
Clients, he was visibly shocked with what
he found: these are his main findings and
recommendations:
The generally poor labour productivity
cannot be blamed on one single factor but
on a group of factors that have an influence
on each other – in particular:
Weed growth:
Of the biological factors, the rate of weed
growth was far and away the most detrimental
to productivity both in terms of tree growth
and man-days per hectare expended on
weed control. Lack of pre-plant and postplant
chemical weeding leads to very high
labour requirements and subsequent slashing
operations.
Poor time-keeping:
Of the other factors effecting productivity,
poor time-keeping and supervision are
the most influential. Poor time-keeping
is ingrained in the rural workforce and it
is anticipated that breaking this pattern
of behaviour will present challenges to
employers. Nevertheless, working a full day
is a prerequisite for any successful business.
Amongst the many recommendations were
the following:
• Contractors (and SPGS Clients) need to be
made aware of the inefficiencies of poor
time-keeping.
• It is suggested that 8 hours be set as
a standard working day (Nb. this is
productive time, excluding meal breaks,
transport etc).
• Workers should be encouraged to take food
to the workplace (or have food provided
at the work-place) even if this flies in the
face of tradition.
• Employers should consider transporting
labour to the workplace: this ensures all
the labour arrives at the same time and
also encourages teamwork.
• Transport would also allow food and water
to be brought to the site, which encourages
good performance.
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