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Agricultural labour is increasingly scarce.

Dong Nai, as an industrial province, has a heavy transfer of labors from rural to industrial zones, making the province's rural areas increasingly lacking labors. In recent years, a labor shortage, especially seasonal labors, has been a difficult problem in agricultural production.


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Farmers in Lam Sa, Cam My commune spread a net to catch the ripe peppercorns because it was difficult to hire labor to catch them. Photo: Phan Linh

 

Currently, farmers planting cashew, pepper ... in Dong Nai are at the peak of harvesting. These agricultural goods are primarily harvested entirely by hand; labor shortage causes hiring costs to increase continuously, leading to an increase in production costs.

 

Profitability is no longer due to high labor costs

 

Currently, the province's pepper and cashew growing areas... are ripe and harvest at the same time, so there is a high demand for recruiting seasonal workers to collect pepper and cashew in the region. The current harvest season presents a significant challenge for farmers due to a labor shortage, especially in Cam My, Xuan Loc, Thong Nhat district...  where broad pepper areas and cashew are harvested concurrently.

 

Specifically, the labor cost for pepper picking increased significantly, with the cost ranging from 230-250 thousand VND/working day. Despite the fact that labour costs are very high, with many other benefits, it is difficult for farmers to hire worker. Ms.Linh Phat Minh, a farmer in Lam San commune (Cam My district), said, "My family has nearly 1 hectare of ripe pepper, but there are no worker." This year's crop of pepper has been lost; 3-4 workers can only collect 30-40 kg of pepper/day. The labor cost is the same as the benefit.

 

Many pepper growers actually hire only 2-3 workers to harvest peppers in moderation while they are completely mature. Gardeners who cannot hire workers must select a workaround such as buying nets to spread across the garden to collect dropped peppers and minimize losses. Mr.Nguyen Ngoc Lanh, a pepper farmer in Lam San commune, explained challenges for pepper growers: "Pepper picking involves climbing, so it also requires young workers, but most young people are employed as company workers." Since there is a labor shortage, many gardeners either abandoned their crops to harvest or purchased nets to collect dropping peppers because they cannot hire anyone to collect it.”

 

Pepper gardens have suffered long-term effects as a result of not harvesting on time or being unable to harvest. According to Mr.Truong Dinh Ba, Farmer Chairman of Lam San commune said: "in recent years, pepper has had a low price, so farmers have taken care of plants in moderate treatment, causing the garden weakened." Not harvesting on time or allowing the pepper to ripen on its own would have a major effect on production, resulting in more diseases in pepper gardens in subsequent seasons.”

 

Farmers manage by themselves

Previously, the labor force was plentiful, either locally or from the western provinces. The majority of young people in working-age now choose to work in manufacturing zones and industrial clusters with a steady salary. This is the reason for the significant lack of seasonal workers in the agriculture sector.

Mr.Nguyen Van Hai, a pepper growing farmer in Gia Kiem commune (Thong Nhat district), said, "Nowadays, young people work as company workers, farmers primarily are old people. We also only require seasonal labors, not permanent ones, so even though labor wages are increasing, we are still having difficulty hiring labors.

 

This is also why many farmers decide to reduce the number of crops that need a lot of works to care for and harvest. Fearing a labor shortage during harvest season, the family of Mr.Nguyen Van Phung, a farmer in Hang Gon commune (Long Khanh city), decided to cut down pepper gardens and a few hectares of coffee. According to Phung, despite the fact that the family's pepper garden and coffee are in high yield, he still cuts off, partially due to the low price, but also due to being too tired to look for workers to harvest. “Currently, local youth are employed as employees, my family often needs to employ a group of workers from the West, take care of food and housing, labor cost rises every year when the price of pepper and coffee is too poor, revenue is insufficient to pay expenses, so crops has to be cut off,” Mr. Phung said.

 

Currently, farm work is mostly inefficient manual labor. This is also why the production costs of many varieties of agricultural products in Vietnam are often higher than in many other countries around the world. It is time for agricultural production to use machines and technology to replace humans so that agricultural goods do not fall behind in the world marketplace.

Phan Anh



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