Nathalie Hostiou

Diversity of forage system work and adoption of intensive techniques in dairy cattle farms of Amazonia

Forest ecosystems of Brazilian Amazonia are cleared to allow livestock production. Deforestation contributes significantly to climate change and losses of biodiversity. Degradation by scrubs reduces pasture productivity after a few years, thus leading farmers to deforest new areas. For this reason, sustaining cultivated pastures is of major importance for cattle farms. Intensive pasture management techniques have been proposed to the farmers, with little success so far. Our hypothesis is that these techniques are not implemented by farmers due to weak work organisation. Here, we assessed the diversity of forage system work of dairy farms in a municipality on the Transamazon Highway. We analysed factors explaining the adoption of intensive pasture management techniques. We monitored seven dairy farms, with a specific work assessment approach to build synthetic qualification variables and an interview of 29 dairy farmers to characterise the diversity of forage system work. Our results show four tasks related to their technical content: pasture maintenance, renovation, land maintenance and exceptional work. The total duration of work is variable, from 17 to 278 days per year, depending on the technical management choices. Some farmers are autonomous in carrying out the work, but in several cases, wage workers may contribute significantly, from 33 to 100%. We identified five types of forage system work. They oppose very simplified technical management carried out in autonomy by the family workforce to intensive techniques based on a high level of delegation to permanent wage workers. The results show that forage system work is related to the technical management choices and distribution of work between farmers and permanent wage workers. Forage system work also depends on the amount of work dedicated to the dairy herd, the role of milk in the farm, and the weight of other farming and non-farming activities. Finally, intensive pasture management techniques are linked to a high quantity of work with pasture maintenance, hired permanent workers and specialised dairy farms.

Relationships between work organisation and size of dairy farms: a case study based in Vietnam

In Vietnam, livestock farming policy is designed to develop milk production to increase the country’s dairy self-sufficiency. However, workload is one of the main constraints limiting the potential for increasing production and herd sizes on family-run farms. The aim of this paper was to explore the relationships connecting work organisation forms and durations to herd sizes in order to understand the impacts of rationalising work by increasing herd numbers. A work organisation survey was carried on 19 dairy farmers in two regions of northern Vietnam. Statistical analysis was run to identify relationships between herd size, work organisation forms and work durations. A cluster analysis was used to establish a typology. The results show that the volume of routine work is higher in large herds but is also more efficient. Farmers running large herds lighten their family workload by mechanising routine tasks and by employing permanent contract workers. The paper concludes on a set of guidance strategies to help dairy farms develop their activity, such as hiring farm labour and mechanising farm tasks.

Work organization on smallholder dairy farms: a process unique to each farm

The way smallholder farms organize and carry out work impacts their ability to secure their livelihoods and meet growing demand for agricultural products. This study investigates the way dairy family farms in Brazil manage their workforce to achieve their objectives of production and income. Fifteen smallholder farms were surveyed using the QuaeWork method to understand the work organization on each farm. A high diversity of workloads was found, but these do not appear to be strictly related to the farms’ production systems. The high variability of workloads is linked to the available workforce, technical choices, and the delegation of tasks to an external workforce. Farmers can decrease their workload by adopting milking mechanization, silage, hiring labor, and increasing the duration of the work day. Work organization depends on a farmer’s personal choices, rendering the whole issue of workforce management a process unique to each farm.

Room for manoeuvre in time of the workforce in dairy production systems

The objective of this study was to characterize and to analyze the room for manoeuvre in time in dairy production systems (DPS). Two interviews were conducted in twenty DPS in the Northern region of Parana, Brazil, with the following objectives: to know the management and practices involving the herd, the land area and the commercialization; and to qualify and evaluate the work organization. In order to build the variables, the repertory grid method was used, and for the typology, the graphic methodology of Bertin adapted to small samples was used. The results showed that the room for manoeuvre in time of the DPS, quantified in hours available per year, varied between the farmers and was related to routine work and seasonal work durations, as well as the autonomy of farmers to perform both works. The routine work was related to the number of cows, but was also explained by the herd management, by the transport equipment for the feed and by the workforce composition. Four types of work organization were identified between sampled DPS, based on room for manoeuvre in time and how they were built. Knowing the room for manoeuvre time and its variables, it is possible to guide the farmers to adjust their dairy production system in order to have more time available for other activities or to develop the dairy production system.

Questioning the work of farmers, advisors, teachers and researchers in agro-ecological transition. A review

The French Ministry of Agriculture has called for agro-ecological transitions that reconcile farming and the environment. In this review, we examine the transformations of farmers and AKIS (Agriculture Knowledge Innovation System) actors’ work during agro-ecological transitions, and argue that the content, organization, and aim of farmers’ work are influenced by agricultural training, agricultural development, and discussions between peers, research, and regulations. Our main findings concern those transformations. The first finding was that there is an increasing expression of local particularities (situated ecological processes, micro-climates, etc.) and farmers’ singularities (e.g., relationship with nature). These particularities challenge AKIS players’ forms of organization and intervention, which used to be built on generic knowledge. Our second finding was that AKIS players have to consider their action as one potential contribution to the development of farmers’ experience: Their interventions become part of the flow of the farmer’s activities. The question for AKIS players is then: How can farmers’ own discovery of their natural and technical environment from new perspectives be facilitated? Thirdly, we found that transformations of work are systemic: The “doing”, the knowledge applied, and the values and norms to which subjects refer change. Facilitating transition can no longer be considered as a problem of knowledge availability. Fourthly, production of agronomic knowledge and ways in which it is disseminated are being challenged. Not only does knowledge have to be certified by scientific norms and methods, it has also to be valued by actors if it is to have an impact. The prescriptive relationship of science and AKIS players towards farmers is likewise challenged. This review raises many questions: Do agro-ecological transitions contribute to reorienting the development of farmers’ activity? Are agro-ecological transitions conducive to the development of sustainable farm work? What transformations of AKIS players’ work are needed to better support agro-ecological transitions?

Analyzing work organization on livestock farm by the Work Assessment Method

All over the world, farmers have to face up to increasing uncertainties (market and climate). They have to adapt their activity to the new contexts and challenges of livestock farming (producing more and better, and satisfying the expectations of society, consumers, and of downstream operators), while at the same time responding to their own expectations in terms of income, quality of life, and working conditions. In order to understand these changes and consider the future, work organization must be taken into account. The Work Assessment Method, developed by French livestock researchers, provides a framework able to capture work organization, taking into account the specifics of the livestock activity. Based on a comparative analysis of nine case studies that used the Work Assessment Method from six contrasted countries, this review (1) gives generic ideas on work organization indicators and their variation; (2) identifies four generic patterns of work organization which are not linked to the local context but marked by the workforce composition; (3) demonstrates that the relevance of the Work Assessment Method to tackle work issues, and its capacities to be adapted to a variety of livestock farming contexts throughout the world, is linked to the properties of its framework, which was developed by combining different disciplinary approaches; (4) highlights the principal limits of the method: lack of coordination with other dimensions of work (labor productivity; sense of the job), and limited characterization of the work organization flexibility; and (5) proposes some possibilities of change to better respond to the diversity of work situations and questions about work, and take better into account the evolutions of livestock farming systems.