RESEACH WORK

Labor force and its incidence on the agricultural-production development of the territory. Case study in a municipality of Matanzas province

A. Suset¹, E. González² , Taymer Miranda1¹y O. Nicado³
1 Estación Experimental de Pastos y Forrajes "Indio Hatuey"
Central España Republicana, CP 44280, Matanzas, Cuba
E-mail: antonio.suset@indio.atenas.inf.cu
2 Departamento de Sociología y Cátedra UNESCO de Desarrollo Humano Sostenible, Universidad de La Habana, Cuba
3 Empresa Pecuaria Martí, Subdelegación Provincial del Ministerio de la Agricultura, Matanzas, Cuba

ABSTRACT

This work presents some essential theoretical conceptions, result of literature review, which support the analysis of the aspects related to labor force in a specific Cuban agricultural-production context. The study was conducted from a systemic perspective and for the information collection the situation of the labor force involved in the municipal agricultural sector was considered; in the field work the structured in-depth interview was applied, for which this constituted a case study. It could be observed that the labor force of the agricultural sector in the municipality is not sufficient and is not prepared for the challenge implied by the ongoing transformations or the performance in the new logics in which productive processes are inserted. There is varied potential of labor force reserve which can be stimulated for the stable reinsertion in the sector, starting from the fact that real expectations of short- and medium-term improvement are perceived, especially when it is acknowledged that agricultural production is essential for the development of the territory in the analyzed case.

Key words: Labor force, productive processes, territorial development.

INTRODUCTION

At present, in all Latin American countries there is discussion regarding the labor force associated to agricultural production, regarding its precarious situation and the exclusion-expulsion and remarkable exodus trends, caused by different variants of the impact of neoliberal globalization. Kay (2006) states that one of the consequences is observed in the increase of poverty and the irregularities to guarantee food security for the population, which main economic support is agriculture in any of its forms.

In the case of Cuba, in spite of the inclusive social policies and the attention of the State to rural areas and the agricultural-production sector, a weakening is also observed of the presence of labor force in territories predominantly associated to agricultural production, as claimed by González and Suset (2010). In this sense, the objective of this work is to present some considerations about the performance of the

labor force linked to the agricultural-production sector in a municipality of Matanzas province, regarding its limitations and potentialities.

Some considerations from literature review

Several aspects should be taken into consideration when analyzing the issues related to labor force. In this regard, Kliksberg (1994) acknowledged the importance ascribed to it in recent decades, in relation to achieving higher productivity and development inside the organizations, mainly from training.

Regarding Latin America, the State of the Nation Program (2008) refers in its report that labor force has wide rural basis; about two fifths of the economically active population lives in that zone. This source sustains that unemployment reaches 4,3% at regional level and affects women more (4,8% versus 4,1 in men and young people 15-24 years old), with rates that tend to double the national mean.

Kay (1995) stated that, in recent decades, four main changes in the composition of labor force in Latin America can be highlighted: a) replacement of leased labor by salaried labor; b) within salaried labor, increase of temporary and seasonal employment; c) increasing feminization of the labor force; and d) "urbanization" of rural workers.

The issues presented until now are related to the three problems that, according to Sabogal (2008), mankind faces nowadays: hunger, environmental crisis and mind contamination, which are associated to the prevailing socioeconomic models, the technical-productive practices and the inequity in richness redistribution; these issues can be associated to education as a factor which enhances human capacity and the effectiveness of the performance as labor force.

An aspect closely linked to labor force in rural and agricultural-production contexts is the theoretical proposal which defends development at human scale. Max-Neef (2001) refers that it is focused and supported on the satisfaction of the essential human needs, on the generation of increasing self-dependence levels and the organic articulation of human beings with nature and technology, as well as the global processes with local performances, the personal with the social aspects, among others.

Regarding the above explained, Sabogal (2008) stated that, from the point of view of the satisfaction of human needs, humans constitute needy beings (homo miserabilis), for which this author proposes multidimensional human development, where the human being is acknowledged to have potential as biological, natural, social, political, affective, intelligent, ludic and transcendent being.

Hence, the above mentioned development demands a new way to interpret the utilization of labor force and forces persons and their processes to be evaluated in a different way from the prevailing one. In this sense, to promote the changes demanded by development at human scale or multidimensional development, the mobilization and participation of inhabitants and workers is required, which allows its concrete materialization in the management strategies of the productive areas and as a way to manage solutions before common and daily problems, present in the localities and productive processes.

Piñeiro (1995), Llambí (1998), Albuquerque (2001), Max-Neef (2001), Gallicchio (2004) and Arocena (2004) stated that the participation and articulation of stakeholders have favorable implications for territory development, and in turn it can facilitate higher incorporation of the labor force, stimulate self-management, promote environmental conservation and also favor a remarkable improvement of the welfare status of people.

The understanding and interpretation of the above-presented arguments constitutes a substantive aspect in the actions for reality transformation through participatory processes and improvement of the living and working quality of labor force, issues present nowadays in the analyzed context.

Methodological aspects

The study was conducted from a systemic perspective, in which the compilation of information considered the situation of the labor force involved in the agricultural sector, mainly those who participate in collective-cooperative organizations.

A start was made from the complexity of the analyzed units, in this case the agricultural-production sector of the municipality, made up by the different production organizational forms associated to the Ministry of Agriculture: state farms, basic units of cooperative production (UBPCs), cooperatives of agricultural production (CPAs), cooperatives of credits and services (CCS) and leasing or individual farmers. This showed the need of the study from a sociological perspective and from notions of economic anthropology, to know how they are organized and the sense stakeholders ascribe to the productive process, which facilitated the understanding and interpretation of the social processes as essence of the usefulness of the qualitative methodology, used in this work, mainly.

The work constitutes a case study and, in this sense, there is coincidence with Yin (1994), who stated that the purpose is the analytical generalization and not the statistical generalization, for which it can be methodologically replicable in cases of similar theoretical support.

An analysis and interpretation was made of the documents from the productive units and organizations of the municipality, related to the productions and labor force of the non-sugarcane productive sector, because sugarcane does not have an important bearing in food production in the studied municipality. For the field work the structured in-depth interview was used; the interviewees were:

• Presidents of the collective-cooperative productive organizations, in this case five UBPCs and two CPAs.

• From the livestock production enterprise of the municipality: chief of production, head of human resources and head of feeding.

• The municipal delegate of Agriculture, the municipal delegate of the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), the municipal vice-delegate of Agriculture and the directors of Economy and Planning of the Municipal Office of Statistics.

• The president and vice-president of the Municipal Government and the secretary of the Council of Municipal Administration.

Brief description of the analyzed municipality

The municipality is organized in six areas. In 2010 it was distributed in 25 settlements, four urban and 21 rural ones; its population represents 3,9% of the total in the province and the urbanization degree is 54,1%, with 23,5 inhabitants per km2; it is the second municipality with lower population density in the province. It has 7 111 homes in the total of its settlements. At the end of 2009, the municipality had a population of 22 300 inhabitants, from which 51,5% are men and the other 48,4% are women; 60,3% of the population lives in urban areas and 39,7% in rural areas.

The structure by age represents an aged population (Frómeta, 2009), with 17% being 60 years old or older, from the total of the municipal population, value higher than the national average and equal to that of the province (fig. 1).

From the 13 497 available labor resources it was noted that 7 216 are working; this includes non-state workers, for which the municipality still has an important labor force reserve. An increase in the number of unemployed people was observed when comparing 2002 and 2009, although the population of the municipality decreased (table 1).

A relative balance between the masculine and feminine population can be observed, in the urban as well as the rural zone; it should be emphasized that most of the population lives in the urban context (table 2).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

It could be observed that the technical, administrative and directive labor force of the agricultural sector in the municipality is not sufficient; it is not prepared either for the challenged implied by the ongoing transformations, regarding food production and for their performance in the new logics in which the productive processes are inserted (table 3).

The utilization of the labor force is related to the more important activities, according to the plans, and this is subjected to the external superior orientations and decisions. In this case, the existence of a large productive reserve in labor force which is not utilized was corroborated, and this occurs because of several reasons:

a) Limited and insufficient income to guarantee productivity and the better utilization of the labor force.

b) Transport limitations and instability to guarantee the mobility from the living place to the work organization or place; the most distant live 5-13 km away; sometimes the workers must assume, for several days, the expenses for this, which exceed half the earned salary.

c) Noticeable labor force fluctuation due to the comparative disadvantages generated by variations in the salaries in the UBPCs and the payment for performing certain activities in the productive process. The fluctuation is also associated to the indirect benefits received by the workers, mainly the flexibility in working hours, the complement to family food and incomes.

In this sense, the emergence of a labor force market could be observed, from the comparative advantages with regards to other activities or organizations in the area. This market is made up, first of all, by workers of the UBPCs and state farms, due to the causes mentioned in item «c»; it is also integrated by people, mainly young, who due to their need to adhere to legality require a job and in this case they are intermittently employed, according to the given situations or pressure throughout the year.

In this regard, González and Doppler (2008) refer that it is required to design an attractive future for young people to perpetuate life in rural areas and acknowledge that, beyond the positioning in the productive and commercialization environment, the capacity to conceive proposals that favor the hold of young people on the social capital that is constantly consolidated, as stated by Putnam (1993), is still fundamental, which is also pertinent for the case being analyzed and where limitations enhance the networks of mutual aid, collective action and trust.

In one of the interviews it was noted that this incipient labor force market exists. It was also learned that such activities as sowing, fencing, weeding, the harvest of varied crops, the fulfillment of productive plans on time and milk production with high quality, among others, receive higher wages. This is neither stable nor homogeneous in all the organizations of the territory; hence the differentiation conditions the mobility of labor force towards certain enterprise or activity depending on the above-mentioned comparative advantages, situation which essentially involves the young people. Here lies the influence of collective action from the fact that the stated elements occur basically in a specific social group, in this case young people.

In varied crops as well as livestock production, cultural attention to the crops and the stages of higher harvest and productive yields require more labor force; this is more necessary in the rainy season. This situation forces the management board of the units to, in a certain way, guarantee the necessary labor force during those stages, which goes through different types of strategies, such as the increased payment per activity, flexibility of the working hours and provision of products for family consumption, etc.

The sector had, at the beginning of 2009 (table 4), 2 884 workers, more than 50% of the employed in the economy of the municipality (7 216). In this case, considering the amount of women residing in the localities associated to the agricultural organizations, their incorporation as salaried labor force can be evaluated as insufficient, and at the same time it is perceived as a group with high productive potential, due to their capacities as providers of incomes and resources, protectors and producers in the family and local environment, respectively. Another substantive aspect which requires analysis for its reversion is the lack of personnel with technical and professional training in the collective-cooperative livestock production organizations (CCS, CPAs, UBPCs).

On the other hand, it was observed that the workers linked to services constituted a remarkable number as compared to the total employees in the sector, which is counter-productive if it is taken into consideration that services are one of the most depressed aspects due to the limitations of inputs, spare parts, management and innovative capacity of the productive organizations in the municipality, which, in addition to increasing the costs of the productive process, enhances unproductiveness.

As mentioned above, the attention to the labor force in order that it can be daily reproduced and face each working day is inefficient, if it is taken into consideration that the mechanisms which allow it are highly limited. The attention to which reference is made should guarantee working conditions, specifically transportation to and from the workplace, as well as food or access to this through the increase of income and purchase power, in correspondence with the work performed and the type of productions, to facilitate the stability of the labor force and the enhancement of its productivity.

The only stimulus acknowledged is the «input market», which is far from constituting a stimulus to productivity and stability of the labor force in the state and UBPC agricultural sector, because of the serious limitations of items and resources to offer.

In spite of that, the labor force payroll is complete in the case of UBPCs, due, partly, to the little comparative advantages with regards to state organizations. All the families of the associates complement their incomes with animal rearing and backyard crop production.

It should be mentioned that the salaries in state organizations, as well as farms, are ruled by the legislation of the Ministry of Work and Social Security; in the case of UBPCs, they are ruled according to agreement of the management board, which is related to productive results and allows higher incomes, although there is still a large reserve of productive capacities.

In spite of the above-explained facts, there is a favorable work climate, many workers of the state sector prefer or tend to work with the UBPC or the farming sector. In this regard, Suset et al. (2010) sustain that cooperativism is foreseen as a viable alternative in the solution of the existing limitations in agricultural production, in the national context, due to its importance in the agrarian structure and the potential to diversify productions, among other aspects.

Under the present adverse conditions, the limitations of the productive process are faced and, often, solved from the generation of more trust, the articulation of cooperation networks to guarantee such process and the daily reproduction of the labor force. In this case, the thesis proposed by Coleman (1990) is acknowledged, stating that the social capital can be productive because it facilitates the achievement of purposes, which are unattainable without it.

There was a nearly coherent relation between the resources assigned and the productions obtained; however, this did not occur between these productions and the incomes received by the workers. This is negative if the productive potential and the productivity of the labor force, which is below the possible value, are analyzed.

The trend of the labor force has been to migrate, since the 90's of the past century, and the main cause is associated to purchasing power, which is insufficient and determined by incomes that do not allow a correspondence with it. This is influenced by the inexistence of house construction programs for the workers of the agricultural sector and the limitations of construction materials for the maintenance and repair of the existing houses; there is not a guarantee of transportation and access to the inputs to accompany the process, either. There is a facility in the territory for the processing of construction materials, which does not work at present and which is visualized with great potential in the solution of constructive problems, mainly because of the large demand of these products at municipal level.

Most of the workers of the agricultural sector in the territory work at the livestock production enterprise and in the UBPCs associated to it (table 5); it should be stressed that in both cases they are linked to livestock production, fundamental activity, with more interest and influence in the zone. The livestock production enterprise, as well as the UBPCs have temporarily hired workers, at certain times of the year, for such specific activities as planting of pastures and varied crops, perimeter fences and harvest.

Nevertheless, there is evidence of the potential for the permanent employment of this group of persons, as a result of the production diversification and the reduction of unproductive lands. It was also noted that retired people constituted an important labor force due to their knowledge, abilities and work experience in the sector (table 6).

In this case the number of professionals was observed to be low in the state sector, similar to the collective-cooperative sector; this confirms the thesis that the incorporation or formation of trained personnel constitutes an important productive potential for the zone, because it would help to increase productivity, increase production and, thus, incomes and dynamization of the economy in the territory.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

Natural causes and socioeconomic internal and external- imperatives propitiated a trend to the decrease of the municipality population, which has implications on the stability of the labor force linked to the agricultural-production sector.

There is a varied potential of labor force reserve which can be stimulated for its stable reinsertion in the sector, from their perceiving real expectations of short- and medium-term improvement.

In the social practice, at agrarian structure level, emphasis is made on the fulfillment of productive plans and the increase of productivity of the labor force, without being articulated to a coherent and rational distribution of productive inputs, productions and profits and incomes generated from it. Hence warrant of basic conditions is required, which would allow the stable permanence and performance of the labor force according to the current demands of production and productivity increase.

The remarkable limitations for the daily reproduction of labor force propitiate, in this case, that the social capital is promoted towards unproductive activities.

From the understanding of the complexity of the agrarian structure in the municipality, the productive practices, productive results and destiny of the productions should be considered, as well as the need to generate participatory processes which propitiate coherence between the plans and productive achievements, mainly in state and collective-cooperative organizations.

In the analyzed case, agricultural production is fundamental for the development of the territory. As there are higher productive potentialities, expressed in concrete productions, it would also be opportune for other sectors; this would facilitate dynamizing the economy of the municipality, with the subsequent impact on the national development strategy and the improvement of the living and working quality of the inhabitants and producers.