LABOUR

Labour includes all forms of productive human efforts put into or utilized in production. It also refers to man’s mental and physical exertions generated in the process of production.

Table of Contents

Features of Labour

(i) Labour is also one of the factors of production

(ii) Human efforts can be intellectual or mental, manual or physical, provided it is directed towards the production of goods and services.

(iii) Labour is mobile and has feelings and cannot be used anyhow.

(iv) Labour exists in three kinds; these are:

Skilled Labour (White Collar Jobs): highly educated and technical to provide the expertise for farm operations.
Semi-skilled Labour: Averagely educated to perform simple farm operations.
Unskilled Labour: (Brown Collar Jobs) These are illiterates that provide

(v) The unit of labour is man-hours or man-days.

(vi) The reward for labour is wages and salaries.

(vii) It converts natural resources into usable products.

(viii) It is a variable asset.

(ix) Its size and quality influence production or output.

(x) Its output can be improved by training.

Forms of Labour available to the farmers

Family Labour
This refers to the labour provided by the man, his wife and children, i.e, the farmer’s family).
It involves the head of the family as the operator/manager.
He organizes the family labour by himself.
He assigns job to each member of the family.
This is the major source of labour available to the farmer and it is very cheap.
Personal Labour: This is the labour provided by the owner of the farm.
Communal Labour: This is the kind of labour provided by neighbours and the community.
Hired or Paid Labour
This is the kind of labour that is paid either daily or they receive salary at the end of the month.
It is common where a farmer has large farm size.
Hired labour is engage either in a permanent or time-rated basis.
The farmer pays for each labour.
It is not readily available; hence, expensive.

Importance of Labour in Agricultural Enterprise

It uses other factors for production.
Intellectual labour ensures high agricultural production.
Skilled labour provides the expertise required for major farm operation.
Labour ensures the success of any agricultural enterprise.
It provides the services required to achieve the various stages of agricultural production.