Introducing labour productivity analysis in a co-innovation process to improve sustainability in mixed family farming

Mixed family farms produce almost half of the world food. Increasing food supply in developing countries requires increasing productivity of both land and farmers' labour as key to increase household income, food security and reduce poverty. A research project developed into Uruguayan vegetable family farms (2006-2010) revealed that the main life quality problems were low family income, high work overload, lack of leisure time, and health problems associated with work. In many of these farms, labour productivity was lower than the opportunity cost of labour. Understanding labour productivity determinants would help to guide co-innovation processes of family farm systems. The objective of this study was to develop and apply a method to analyze labour productivity (LP) at farm level, identifying the main causes of low LP, to use its results in a co-innovation process. We selected 14 vegetable-beef cattle farms with different resource endowment. The method developed involved characterization and quantification of labour allocation to farm activities, calculation of technical coefficients that explained LP and quantification of improvement scenarios. The first scenario estimated the impact of farm redesign plans and the second one added the effect of mechanizing some tasks. LP was lower than the opportunity cost of labour (4 USD h(-1)) in 10 out of 14 farms. LP in vegetable production (LPv) was explained by both, net return (NR, $ kg(-1)) and labour efficiency (LE, kg h(-1)). LE correlated with the amount of product sold (APS, kg of vegetables or meet per year). LP in beef cattle production (LPb) was lower than LPv. LPb was higher on farms with more than 80 cattle units (CU) and 60 ha due to lower labour per ha and per CU showing a scale effect. Projected scenarios showed that LP could be tripled by improving resource allocation, and crop and animals management. Mechanizing some labour consuming tasks could further increase LP by 12 %. This study contributes to co-innovation methodology development by adding labour productivity analysis at diagnosis stage and using the results to aid participatory development of applicable and appropriate strategies to increase family farm systems sustainability.