Specifically, analysis of Intra-household relationships within a sets of relationships challenges us to re-examine our assumptions about
farming Systems framework can help us address the following sets of microeconomic production and consumption behavior observed at the
issues; household level.
1) What types of technologies are needed by the poorest or Allocation of Family Labor
least secure farming households? What are their priorities
in terms of improvements to the practices and production In its simplest form, this concern could be stated as: "Who will
strategies they have developed to cope with limited do the additional work required by the new agricultural technology?resources (such as land quantity and quality, rainfall,
labor, cash and other capital)? Household labor- is not an undifferentiated commodity which can be
aggregated to determine accurately the overall labor available to the
2) How do we explain the divergences between results household. While a certain amount of substitutability undoubtedly
achieved in scientist-managed vs. farmer-managed technology exists within the family labor pool, for the most part responsibility
packages? for specific crops, operations, off-farm production, and unpaid
household maintenance tasks is allocated between different members
3) What socioeconomic factors determine whether households according to their age, sex, abilities and experience, and status within
of different compositions and resource bases can and will the household. This specialization of labor means that different family
adopt proposed changes In agricultural technology? How are members have different labor profiles throughout the year. Even in a
scarce resources actually allocated to accommodate the basically labor-surplus rural economy, for example, or in a situation
necessary changes in practices and Inputs? What, if any, where the household is judged to have idle labor resources in the
production and household maintenance tasks are thereby aggregate, certain family members may actually be overegnlQygAd at
displaced and with what effects? Who are the key certain times of the year in essential unpaid and/or low-productivity
decision-makers in adopting new technologies and how are tasks. If their labor is required for new tasks as a result of changes
these decisions implemented? and in agricultural technology, since those new tasks are considered their
responsibility under prevailing labor allocation patterns, it is not at
4~) What new technologies are Introduced and partially or all clear that other family members will devote additional time to that
fully adopted, what categories of households and individuals unpaid and/or low-productivity work displaced by the new demands.
gain and lose? What are the full range of short-term and
long-term distributional Implications of the technologies we An example might illustrate this point. With the introduction of a
propose? higher-yielding cereal variety, more labor will be demanded for
harvesting, processing, and storage activities (which generally account
A better understanding of Inlra-housejg14 labor allocation, for a high share both of total farm labor expenditure on the crop, and
decision-making, deployment of non-labor resources, and incentives can of total value-added from the crop). If non-family labor cannot be
aid us at each stage of the FSH process, i.e. in analyzing the key hired because of unavailability or unaffordability, the women and
household-level constraints within the system through diagnosis, in children of the household may be expected to provide most or all of the
setting priorities for technology design, in assessing the socioeconomic additional labor, since as a rule they are considered to have primary or
feasibility and adoption likelihood of different technology packages, sole responsibility for tasks such as food processing and storage. Yet
and in identifying necessary policy changes to improve the distribution this exacerbated labor peak may coincide with other major demands on
*of resulting benefits and costs, their time, such as harvesting of another crop, pursuit of off-farm
employment, or fuelwood and water collection. If the additional labor
Which aspects of the complex web of intra-familial interactions may demands are accommodated by these family members, production of other
be most Important fcr determining acceptance of and benefits from new essential household goods and services may thus be reduced.
agricultural technologies? Three relationships require particularly Mechanization can create an analogous situation, where use of machines
careful analysis: a11221dion of family labor among agricultural tasks and/or draft animals to perform land preparation tasks (which are often
and other activities competing for members* time, patterns of the responsibility of adult males) may permit expansion of land under
deiin-"m eorj oto by various household members, and cultivation, thereby creating additional labor demands for unmechanized
the structure of economic and non-economic incentives for different weeding, harvesting, and processing tasks (which are often the domain of
individuals within the household to participate and allocate their time women and children).
and other scarce resources to the new or reorganized enterprises
required by the improved agricultural technology. The growing empirical To summarize, examination of intra-household labor allocation
evidence on the nature and determinants of the interactions of these suggests that:
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