FAMILY LABOUR ON GO CD A FARMS Christine Okali Introduction Changes in agricultural production techniques including the introduction of new crops and the growing of crops for sale have been noted as affecting the demand for various members of the agricultural labour force in Africa* Boserup (1970) for instance associates a redistribution of farm work between the sexes with the change from hoe to plough agriculture and the introduction of cash crops. Allen (1965) discussing agricultural changes including the spread of cash cropping in Africa south of the Sahara? notes the emergence of a-small class of capitalist farmers. whose distinguishing feature is their dependence on hired rather than family labour* Boserup's detailed ..analysis of women's role in economic ;. development is probably the most comprehensive survey of possible changes occuring in the division of labour between the sexes as a result of agricultural changes. Apart from associating female farming systems with hoe agriculture nnd male faming systems with plough agriculture, she hypothesises that men play a more significant role than women where cash crops are produced and where land sales "take place. She generalises that on farms growing cash crops the women are "substituted for by hired workers while they themselves concentrate on the cultivation of food crops for consumption: where women do assist with the cash crops they are merely unpaid helpers on their husband's farms. Boserup notes however the exceptional case of the Yoruba cocoa farmers of Nigeria among whom the women Paper presented at Logon Family Seminars No.4» Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, 1973- are reported to demand payment for'working on their husband1 s farms, and a number of studies which have shovn that in fact women often complete more than half the agricultural work even in areas whoro cash crops are produced, because they frequently work longer hours and have a higher rate of participation than the men. Ottenberg (1959) reports a contrasting situation .among the Afikpo Ibo in Nigeria, where the women were growing the new crop, cassavas for sale leaving the men to concentrate on the traditional yam which was! the prestige crop. : ' In this paper, data on the use and organization of farm labour, in particular womai's labour, by a small number of cocoa farmers working at a farm camp in Brong-Ahafo, Ghana? are presented with a view to looking again at some of the possible changes which these previous studies have suggested follow the development of . cash crop agriculture. The division of farm work between the sexes in Ghana For Ghana-there are few detailed, studies of work roles among;, cash crop producers., Jkddo (1971 • 35)? reporting generally on the. rural labour force notes that female labour is a stabilising factor in farm employment in many rural areas. Rourk.e (1971 • 1.7) however observes that Brpng Ahafo is. one of the two regions in Ghana.where, males predominate sagaificantly over females in the total population, and presumably, .in the labour force.. Wagenbuur (1972) reporting on the .organisation of work among lime farmers in the Central Region observes that wives of male farmers work primarily on food crops which are not growi fp,r. sale leaving the men to concentrate on the lime trees. Independent cpcoa farming by women has however been reported in Ghana. Beckett (1947) writing of Akokoaso, an Akim village in the Eastern, Region, notes that there were 104 independent female as against- riGS^iaale farmers although the isonen had smaller farms than the men. HiU (1962 ; 278) records that in New Juaben and certain, native Akim areas about half the YD men were cocoa farmers in their oisn right. There are then a number of somewhat contrasting reports on tho role of the sexes in cash cropping The main focus of the present paper is the contribution of worn on in particular to work on their husbands' farms rather than their role as independent producers. Data on actual Labour inputs on cocoa f' jy s v\ r - period of 12 months in 1972/73 are used. ; .'Fathers wire selected for study on the basis of their willingness to provide data over a period of at least 12 months for a detailed economic survey of cocoa fcanning. The total sample included 14 Dale aid 3 female independent cocoa farmers operating 17 holdings comprised of farms of different ages. ID.though one of the females assisted her husband on his bearing cocoa farms, her major concern was the development of her own separate cocoa farms. The composition of the labour force an cocoa farms Details of the type of hired labour used on cocoa farms "are available elsewhere (ftourke, 19T1 )• Hired labourers can be con- veniently be divided into temporary and permanent workers, the l a t t er being those hired on .an annual contract for cash and caretakers paid a percentage of the crop harvested in any one year. Excluding the three women who farmed independently and the caretakers and annual Labourers, the labour force on the sampled farms comprised 20 males and 21 females* included the males are increased to 30. Although the wives of these hired workers did assist at times with the harvesting of cocoa pods for instance, they did not complete any major tasks on the farms on which their husbands were working and could not therefore be regarded as permanent assistants in any sense. If the hired workers are Only two farmers received any continuous help from adult- offspring, one a daughter and one a son. Children of school age ?/ere mostly attending school in their home towns and therefore they also have l i t t le assistance on farms at this s i t e. With the . exception of the two women -working independently, the smallest work group of permanent adult assistants other than hired workers was two, comprising a m?n and his wife. Eight of the fanners ?rere assisted try only one wife. The largest group of kinsmen working together consisted of five adults, a man, his three wives and a nephew. A number of fanners received temporary help from other kin, "but as will be seen later, their contribution to work on farms was minimal. :, JO.though all the wives were assisting on what might essentially be called t h e ir husband's farms, a number had received or were expecting, to receive a portion of the land being cultivated, or expected to receive a separate plot which they themselves could develop. Only one fa2fi:ex.J3^£_axiti3^11£^^V( in this,fcase.,2*2, acres, which they themselves were developing while also assisting; their husband, on: his. farms. Of the three, women #io;: were wprking independently^ one, was developing a 4 acre rplot purchased on her behalf by her husband, and she .worked :only 6 days "-on the husband's bearing" fams over a period of one year, whilst her husband worked one day on her farm. The second woman ?,rho had no husband was working on 4 acres of land provided, by her son and she received some direct labour from him. The third had purchased her farm money earned by herself as a nurses and had hired an annual labourer to be in charge. Time budgets of members of the labour1 force ' : ': Actual contributions to work on farms can only be knoua when labour inputs are recorded over time. How many days an individual can Tiork on faros is determined to a 1'arge extent by the other things which he or she does. Table T indicates how husbands and wives spent their days over 12 months. One important feature of the farming activities at Dominase for; tHe^considerable amount of time spent In some cases wives were sent home to plant food is the general absence of separate food farms- All the 14 male fanners had young cocoa farms on -which food crops were grown for consumption. crops on land for which payment for use did not have, to be made, and this partly accounts away from Domiaase by; wives. In the case of husbands, three also had bearing faims at home, and part of their time spent away from Dominase was used for supervising work on these farms during cocoa harvesting. Beckett (1947) reports that women and children worked on average 58 actual days on the men's fauns but does not note how many days wives worked on their own farms. The only other cocoa area for which detailed time budgeting data are available is that reported for Yoruba cocoa farmers in Nigeria (Galletti Baldwin and Din a, 195&)« to be umvilling to work on their husband's farms without payment; whereas the men spent 83 percent of their working time on food and cocoa farms (197 days), their wives spent only 7 percent. Most of the wive's working time was spent processing food and fulfilling household tajsks, 44 percent and 31 percent respectively (p. 298). Pood processing is not a major feature of activities at Dominase, but work in the Eastern Region suggests that in older established cocoa areas it is a more important activiby; we might therefore expect to find a different pattern of time budgeting in these areas. In this case, as already noted, wives are reported The contribution of wives to work on the husband's cocoa farms, although on average lower than that of their husbands', individually showed greatejr variation and in some cases exceeded that of their husbands. rEhfe lowest number df days recorded as being spent by a wife on a husband's farm over|a twelve month period was 28 days, and in this case the wife spent many months in hospital owing to difficult child birth;--- the lowest record for—any man w-as-96 I • ••- The highest contribution recorded for wives was 201 days which was also the highest recorded for any male over the twelve month period, lives in polygynous households contributed on average the same inputs of labour to -work on husband's farms as wives in monogamous households. Table 2 presents the seasonal distribution of farm work by husbands and wives at Domin?,se» Again* the amount of work completed by both spouses who actually went to farm is similar and is similarly distributed throughout the year with the lowest number of days worked appearing during the main cocoa harvesting season. However, the average per female who actually went to farm was greater than the average for the males from Nover to April, a time when most of the food crops are planted on farms. Again, the variation between the contribution of the women can be seen from the difference in the number of women who actually went to farm in any one month. month did all the females go to faun. In no Time budgeting of male cocoa fanners and their spouses over 12 .months Table 1 Activities Cocoa farm work Other Farm work Other remunerative work Other unpaid work Sick/pregnant Absent from Dominase Rest days Social activities at Dominase Total ^ctual total days Males n = 10 Females n = 15 149 21 23 12 21 66 7.1 3 366 121 8 11 6 56 80 83 1 366 Actual-Pay si work able 2 months?- s: .farm throughout 1_2 Hu si) ands s n = 11 Total Men . Working Total Days Worked Average Days p er Working. Male " Tot .91 Days Worked Total Women Working fives i = 15 Vverage Days per Working T7om,?ri May June July August Sept sober October- • November 33ecomb or Janu zry February March iipril 146 136 188 168% 175 794 135 122 138J- 119 11 11 " " ' 11 : 11 11 8 9 10 11 -to- 11 - 13-3 ?. 12.4 17-1 15-3 15-9 9-2 7.2 8.3 1 2O3 ........1.1? 1 ' 12.6 10.8 150 149 192§ 176 • 174 107 115 i63ir 91 11Q 170 158 13 • 13 12 13 14 13 12 12 6 11 12 12 11.5 11-5 16.0 13-5 12.4 8.2 9.6 13-6 15*2 10.0 14«2 13.2 a« Excludes 4 farmers and t h e ir wives vho travelled to work as crop share caret?>;ers over four months of the year. distribution of the labour fore.g..j3,etjggff^,,infia^5ii.^d--t^ Hie type of work to be completed on cocoa farms varies both between and., within -farms containing trees of different ages. Tathin. the f i r st twelve months of cocc a farm establishment, 24 percent of the total time spent working is used for planting and harvesting the major shade crop plantain and other food items, whereas en farms aged 13 months until they are fully bearing, 5-3 percent of the time is spent an.-these activities, and less than one whole day on fully bearing farms (Qkali, 1973)* Most of the food crops planted on the fauns included in the survey were consumed by the production group itself or taken to home 'toviis for other family members. If women are s t i ll largely concerned with producing food for consumption we might therefore expect to find differences in their contribution to work on farms :of different ages. The way in which all the various members" of the'labour force distributed, their farm working hours between different farms is given in Table 3« Both spouses spent the largest proportion of their time on first year farms, similarly other female members of the husband* s kin groupSc spend as much time as the men on farms 13 months to full bearing and - were to' some extent substituted for by hired labourers on these farmsf ^ives in particular however spent a large proportion of their time on full bearing farms. I7omen did not Table 3 ' ; Time budgeting of members of the labour force between cocoa farms of different age our Force Male"" Male Farmer kin wives Female kin % Total time spent on• farms a jlnnual Hired labour* labour Other farmers Care- takers Farms MONTHS 1-12 36.1 30.7 42.3 84-1 27-3 2.8 6.2 99*4 3,2 27-6 21.4 3»0 46.0 15.5 19,3 43»5 13 Months to Fall Bearing Full Bearing Farms (Farmer in charge) Full Bearing Farms (Hired caretaker in charge) a) Includes labourers hired on a daily basis and those hired on contract. For a detailed discussion of the types of hired labour available for work on cocoa farms see Itourke (i97i). 10.3 14.8 13-0 62.6 13.7 31-4 31-1 12.9 0,2 1-9 7.3 91.7 0.6 b) Other farmers' refer to nej. If we look at the way in which husbands and wives spent their time on particular tasks on different farms there is some evidence of task specialisation (Table 4)« Ihe work requiring most inputs on all farms was weeding, and both husbands and wives spent a large proportion of any fanning time completing t&Lsvtask. On all farms weeding starts in May and" from May*'to October is the major task to be conipleted*?: Similarly, during harvesting time on bearing farms there is l i t t le competition between tasks and both husbands and wives are able: to spend a large proportion of any time spent on farms harvesting. Table 4 Percentage distribution of spouses' time between tasks on cocoa farms Tasks Planting food other than plantain and harvesting Planting Plantain Planting Oocoa ¥eeding Land Clearing Harvesting Oocoa Other Maintenance Drying Oocoa Other Total Husbands A $' 15.9 4.0 31«3 33-5 15-3 - - - - 100.0 6.0 - 5-2 78.6 - 8.7 - - 1.5 1OO0O C 4.9 - - 24* 7 r 31-7 27.4 11.3 - T7ives A B C 27.0 12.8 16.1 37c 1 7.0 - - - 11.6 11.2 - 1-1.-1 - - 63.1 33.4 12.7 - - 1.5 100.0 30.6 6.7 18.0 0.1 100.0 A Fauns 1-12 months B Farms 13 months to full bearing G Full bearing farms. 100.0 100.0 Table 5 presents the data in a slightly different way. Here the importance of different members of the agricultural Labour force for completing various tasks is indicated. Extreme specia- lisation may mean that some jobs are not completed at all* However, few tasks are completed entirely by one type of labour, which is partly a reflection of the total time taken to complete a particular job, and partly a reflection of the extent to which certain jobs are seasonal. For instance on first year fauns tasks involving planting food and cocoa are all completed within a similar time period. A large pro- portion of all work during the first twelve months is completed by members of the farm family although the situation obviously varies according to the size of the farm. The largest new farm cleared during the survey period was 8.5 acres, the average 2.2« With a peak labour requirement on all young farms of 13 days per acre in the three months of February, ,March and April, evai excluding'the work on food crops other than plantain, some additional labour is obviously necessary unless the family labour force is large (Okali 1973)• Women were however more responsible for planting and harvesting food than were the men, particularly during this first year of planting, and on bearing farms, and pie men for felling trees and planting: cocoa* Farm maintenance operations other than weeding are also largely the responsibility of the farmer himself whereas clearing of new farms is almost mtirely completed by hired workers* Looking at the division of labour between wives, husbands and other kin, it is only the less time consuming tasks which are particularly specialised. Summary and Discussion The main focus of this paper has been.,the contribution which various members of the agricultural labour force, in particular wives, make to work on cocoa farms. From the sample it was shown that 11 taking labour of relatives alone? both sexes were almost equally represented although, when all members of the permanent labour, force in the sample are taken-togetheJi-male participation is greater than female. l^ wo'rking on their husband1 s farms, in the situation described here? some of the women do expect to receive part~-@f---the^farnis, *aibe"±f-a small one, and both spouses spent on average a large proportion of their working time on the same cocoa farms, husbands 73 percentj, and wives 83 .percent, which contrasts strongly with the situation described for Nigeria (Galletti, Baldwin and Binai 1956)7 I* was noted however thai there was considerable variation in inputs among wives and in their contribution • throughout the yearo If only wives who actually worked were considered, it was shovn. that their contribution in terms of actual days they went to farm was often greater than that of their husband. Since the type of work to be completed on cocoa fauns varies considerably over the l i fe of the tree, particularly with respect to • foodcropping, data en the extent to which various members of the labour force spent their time on particular tasks were used to investigate the contention that women spend time growing food crops for consumption while husbands concentrate on cash cropsc From the data, it was demonstrated that although some division of labour between tasks was evident, pparticularly when a number of tasks had. to be completed during the same time period or when tasks took l i t t le time to complete, there was considerable work sharing., Tasks which in any case required intensive labour inputs took a large part of all time spent on farms of all workers regardless of whether they specialised in other tasks. Although all members of the family completed a large proportion of work on young farms, women did tend to complete more-of the irork of food cropping. Finally, althou-gji hired labour....was. .us^d.-on -farms-? there was-Tro "evidence to suggest that" it was used as a substitute for female labour on cocoa farms as a whole. On bearing farms, hired caretakers substitute both for the farmers and their relatives. 12 Table 5 Tasks completed by members of the labour force on cocoa farms of different ages Labour Famer Male Kin Uives Female Kin Hireda Labour Proportion Other Farmers of total work Care- iSnnual takers Labour Tear One Clearing Pel ling k u i n in g / f lp ana •••:•. Planting Cocoa 11 anting Plantain Flan ting Pood crops Harvesting Ibod "weeding Making Traps All Tasks 13 Months to Jull vianting Cocoa PI £3itin g PI ant ain Planting Jbod Harvesting Food "Tee ding pp raying Other Maintenance Harvesting Cocoa ; ai Tasks All Bearing Fauns Planting Food Harvesting Food weeding Other Maintenance Harvesting Oocoa Drying cocoa/ carrying £L1 Tasks 56.7 41.8 Includes labourers hired on a daily basis and those hired en contract. 1.2 13.4 17^9 14.2 9*0 12-1 1.0 0.7 0.4 10.2 8i5 33-1 32". 3 46;9 15.? 22.4 19^9 19^2 52.^6 25*6 Bearing 24-3 — 44-"6 23-3 23-9 46.4 100. p 29'. 5 25-G 62.7 7.8 6.6 59-3 10.2 3*. 9 4.0 8.6 2.2 7.8 4.0 6.9 15-6 6.4 15-2 _ •• — 8.4 3-2 26.8 — 19-6 6.0 12.7 4.0 6; 5 8,6 5.8 5.6 32.2 30.5 64.1 46.9 50.0 26.8 31-4 39.1 100,0 49.0 42.2 14.3 26.8 —" 32.9 19.4 22.2 86.0 11.2 18.1 12.2 — - 1.0 4.9 6.6 19.0 6.2 — 4.5 1-3 — — - 0.4 - - 0.4 2.5 - • - - 1-2 91*5 57.4 22.0 3.7 0.8 13.0 1.8 30.0 31.6 23.0 20.1 — 6.4 26.1 57.9 - -" 47.6 2.3 24.5 2.9 - _ — - - — - - 0.1 —. — — - — - 18.0 1.3 - 0.6 - 37.2 _ - 9.5 606 8.8 1.8 - 4.4 - 4.9 - - 0.3 - - - 0.3 ' • - - 2.7 3-3 1-5 5.3 6.5 - 4-1 - - - . - - - 50.5 14.0 33.O - - - 1*8 7.6 1) Addo9 IT.O. 1971 3) Beckett, Y7.H 196; 1947 4) 5) Boseraps E. 1970 G&Lletti, R. Bald .win, K 0. 1956 6) Okali, C 1973 7) 0ttehberg5 1959 0 Bourke, 3 .1 1971 9) !7agenbuur, H.T.M. 1972 13 Ghana. V o l° 1? Social and Demogra- piiic chaxacteristics of the cocoa fazinin/? j)opulatiXi of the 3ron^ Ahafo Region. Demographic Unit, Uhiversity of Ghsna, Legon (Mimeo.) t^gIi5SS!j5§&° Oliver stid 3oyd. _2o<. published for the London School of Economics and p o l i t i c al Science by Percy Lund Humphries and Go. Ltd, George"'Allen. & Ifcwin Ltd. >S» & Din.a> I»0» Nigerian c^coa fartnerssi; ^^eooncEiic stiryev of Yoraba coGoa:i FaHBing Lfgaili Oxford University press° London. Labour inputs on cocoa faxmss case studies* Paper presented at the Coco 3concnri.es Research Gonferaice9 9 - 12 April, ISS3R? Legcn. The changing Economic position of . women among the Afikpo Xbo Ins ^ n~ _tinuiJry _ _ and |chai/-^e _±nn;iiAfri csg _,„.cu 1 tu re V7.R. Pascom & M.Jo HeM3^evlts(eds« ] University of Chicag:>' Press. Tages '-#i& incomes of workers in Gh.ana- .agricultural i ISSEH, Legon*;] Labour and developments an analysis of the time-budget and of the pro- ductivity of lime farmers rr 3 unh TIL Ghana. Gape Coast University, Ghani. iie^e