L'organisation du travail en exploitations familiales d'élevage ; L'organisation du travail en exploitations familiales d'élevage: Enseignements d'une analyse comparée conduite en France, en Amérique latine et au Vietnam

Abstract

Interest in the future of family livestock farms fully justifies the study of work organisation on such farms, as a particular contextualisation of interactions between the composition of the farming family, the combination and dimensioning of economic activities (agricultural and non-agricultural) and the technical operation of the farm. Our study is based on a comparative analysis of 19 farms spread over four regions of the world (Pampas of Argentina and Uruguay; Brazilian Amazonia; French Segala; the mountains of North Vietnam), and chosen along with our local research and development partners. It aims at describing the diversity of forms of work organisation and at giving more food for thought about the future of livestock farming. The framework of our work analysis combines variables relating to the structural and productive characteristics of the livestock farms and others describing the configuration of the work unit, the arrangement of buildings and equipment, herd management and surface areas, and the adjustment of non-agricultural activities. Three work organization profiles are identified. The discriminating variables of the profiles are the recourse to permanent wage-earning, mutual aid, and the degree of sophistication/simplification of the management. The profiles, which are not closely related to the terrains or the structural and productive characteristics of the farms, underline points of coherence which replace technology in the farmers' work activity systems