Labour in the sesame sector in northwest Ethiopia

Study conducted in 2014 - 2015

An analysis on the characteristics, dynamics and conditions of labour and labourers

Objective: “To get a better understanding of thecharacteristics, dynamics, and conditions of labour and labourers in the sesame sector in northwest Ethiopia”

Focus: “Farmers’ labour requirements and costs and labourers’ capacities, conditions and income”

Objective and focus of the study

Research done: In the SBN intervention area (8 woredas, 73 kebeles)

Labourers distinguished in: Wemya (Daily wage labourers), Gual (Contract labourers), Kobrari (Farm managers), sharecropping labourers and family labourers

Farmers distinguished in: Small scale (≤ 10 ha), medium scale (10 – 30 ha) and investor farmers (≥ 30 ha)

Methods used:• Observations and informal meetings with relevant actors• Interviews with labourers (26), including special focus on student labourers (11)• Interviews with farmers (27)• Farm visit checklists (27)• Quantitative data collections from mainly woreda offices• Photo and video material production• Secondary data

Methodology

• Around 540,000 labourers are working in the sesame areas during peak times based on calculation made with the following input data ...

- Amount of cultivated sesame land: 450,000 ha; 50% small scale and 50% investor

- Labour days per cultivated ha of sesame land: 70 days: small scale; 50 days: investor; 60 days: on average

- Full time working labour days (8 hours) to finish all the activities of all the sesame land: 50Assumption: If it is possible that all the labourers could work the whole season equally it takes only 50 days to finish all the activities

Amount of labourers in the sesame areas

BUT ...Issue explaining underestimation of the calculated labour amounts:

- Special calculation made regarding to turn-over rate of hired labour:– Student labourers work on average around 39 (38.75) labour days; – Wemya and Gual labourers work on average around 45 (45.28) labour days

Conclusion: Taking into account the assumed 50 full-time labour days needed to finish all the work activities, there is a hired labour turn-over rate between 10 – 20%

Issues explaining overestimation of the calculated labour amounts:

- Family labourers work probably more than 50 labour days during the whole season due to:- Their involvement in Debo/Wenfel/Webera - A lot of family labourers work as Wemya (family labourers play a double role)

- Farmers lower investment in (hired) labour (based on SBN Production Cost Study)- Labour shortage this year; not all the sesame land was harvested

Amount of labourers in the sesame areas (cont’d)

We should not forget the family labourers!

• Most of the time oral/informal working agreements are made; formal/written agreements are not common

• Oral agreements create problems regarding to conflict resolutions

Working agreement

Labourers’ criteria choosing farmers

Farmers’ criteria choosing labourers

• Labourers: Discussions among labourers to set the labour price before going to the labour market; labourers will not work for a price below the price they set before

• Farmers: Use incentives (better payment, services, tella, …) and lies (distance farm/labour market to farm land)

Strategies used by labourers and farmers to work for each other

– Intensiveness of the work such as working hours/rhythm– Access to quality basic needs such as health, food, drinking water,

shelter, ... – Environmental conditions such as weather, diseases (e.g. malaria,

typhoid, diarrhoea), dangers (e.g. snakes) and conflicts between labour groups and between Saluk and Gofar specifically)

Working and living conditions differ per type of labourer: Best - worse: Family labourer, sharecropping labourer, Kobrari, Wemya and Gual

Working and living conditions

• Too little basic needs services are provided by third parties

• Labourers as well as farmers are not satisfied with the support they get from third parties during working in the sesame areas

Service provision of third parties

Rules and regulations for investors

• The following labour issues are checked by the experts which count totally for 15%: (1) Clean water provision: 4% (2) Food and cooking tools provision: 4%(3) Health service provision: 3% (4) Shelter provision, for male and female separately: 2%(5) Latrine provision: 2%

• The rules and regulations for farmers are not well implemented

Rules and regulations for investors (cont’d)

• Partly due to the working and living conditions labourer’s capacities and quality of services in the sesame business seem not good.

• Besides labourers get not enough training to do the agricultural activities as good as possible; partly due to that a lot of farmers not implementing the best agricultural practices

Labourers’ capacities and quality of services

Labourers’ practices

• Labour prices differ mainly due to:– Type of agricultural activity– Type of contract (Wemya, Gual, ...) – Geographical area; related to different conditions in

the area such as:• Access to the area• Weather conditions/hardship• Sesame condition; the better the sesame, the lower the

labour costs• Labour shortage/abundance• ...

Labour prices

• Labour costs optimum between around 4,000 (investor) and 6,000 (small scale) ETB per ha (not including credit costs)

• Farmers invest often much less: total production costs are around 5,500 ETB per ha (Production Cost study), means around 3,000 ETB per ha for labour; around 50 – 60% of production cost is in general paid for labour

• 1,350,000,000 (more to the reality; 3,000 * 450,000) - 2,250,000,000 ETB (in optimum case; 225,000 * 4,000 + 225,000 * 6,000) is spend for labour by sesame farmers (not including credit costs); means 2,500 – 4,200 ETB per labourer

• Income of hired labourers measured in labour study:

– Wemya and Gual: on average around 4,000 ETB

– Student labourers: on average around 3,000 ETB

– Sharecropping labourers and Kobrari: Difficult to calculate

Labour cost Vs. Labourers’ income

• Labourers’ expenses during working in sesame area differ among type of labourer:– Wemya and Gual: around 2,000 ETB (46 ETB per labour day)– Student labourers: around 900 ETB (23 ETB per labour day)– Sharecropping labourers and Kobrari: Difficult to calculate

• Wemya, Gual and student labourers save around 2,000 ETB per season

• Savings spend on: basic needs (for family), education, investment for a business, …

• A lot of labourers face problems regarding to save money– Lack of awareness– Accessibility to MFIs

Labourers’ expenses and savings

• Capable labourers and good labour conditions: what does it bring to farmers? (Invest more,

to earn more!)

– What can be done to improve the working and living conditions of labourers in the sesame area?

– በሰሊጥ ዘርፍ የሚሰሩ የቀን ሰራተኞችን የስራ እና የኑሮ ሁኔታ ለማሻሻልምንማድረግ ይቻላል ?

– How can we improve labourers’ capacities and quality of services in the sesame business?

– በሰሊጥ ዘርፍ የሚሰሩ የቀን ሰራተኞችን አቅም እና ክህሎት ለማጎልበት ምን ማድረግ ይቻላል ?

• How to comply with guidelines (such as checklist for investors) of labour and social affairs?

• የቀን ሰራተኞችን አያያዝን በተመለከተ የወጣውን ህግ እና ደንብ በደንብ ለመተግበር ምን ማድረግ

ይገባል ?

• How can we improve labour shortage/abundance problem in the sesame areas at peak

times?

• በሰሊጥ ዘርፍ የሚታየውን የቀን ሰራተኞች እጥረት በተለይ በወሳኝ የስራ ወቅት ለመቅረፍ ምን

ማድረግ ይገባል ?

Main points for discussion

Thank you for your attention!

3rd SBN Stakeholders NetworkAnnual Meeting Participants