5. Economic and social considerations
5.1. Aspects of Improved Post harvest Systems
5.2. Gender Aspects in the Maize Production and Postproduction System
An economic analysis of investment in an improved post harvest system could be in two ways:
The first involves calculations of new investment, as for example, costs or value of the building materials, labour costs whether hired or self, interest costs, depreciation costs and costs of maintenance.
The second one would calculate the actual cash cost, such as building materials bought, equipment, hired labour, interest cost for borrowed money. Most of the time, farmers would only calculate and taking into consideration the cash expenses used in the investment.
Of high remark is the issue that the farmers should know that if the post harvest system is improved it will pay back the money investment. In case that farmer borrow money to pay, he should be clear that the gain from the improved system has to cover expenses he did as well the interest cost.
1). Investment cost.
a. Expenses for building materials and equipment
b. Cost for hired labour
c. Total cash investment cost (a+b)
2). Yearly cost.
d. Assuming that farmers want the money back in five years. So that, the yearly costs are:
d (*) = a+b/5
- interest is not indicated in these calculations.
e. Over the years cost for repair and maintenance have to be met. It is difficult to calculate an exact maintenance cost, but this is suggested to consider yearly 10 percent of the cost investment (a+) so, e= (a+b).10/100 = 0.1 (a+b).
f. Operational cost:
It includes labour cost, chemical for pest control treatment, etc. Note that difference in operational cost between old system and the improved system is the accurate difference in cash operations costs.
g. The yearly costs attributed by the improved or renewed post harvest system as compared to the traditional system are the sum of:
- investment.
- (interest cost).
- maintenance costs
- and the difference in operational costs.
- g = d+e+f
h. The yearly extra cost occurred by the introduction of the improved post harvest system should be paid by the gain in saved grain due to the improved methods. One way to calculate this is to estimate how many Kg of grain has to be saved to pay for the total yearly cost and conclude if this is a reasonable figure.
k. The example below demonstrate the method (in US $Dlls).
1. Storage capacity 1500Kgs.
2. cash cost for building materials = $15.00
3. cash cost for labour = $0.00
4. yearly cost during 5 years = 15+0/5 $3.00
5. yearly maintenance cost = (15-0)x0.1 $1.50
6. difference in operational costs = $1.50
7. total yearly costs = 3+1.5+1.5 $6.00
8. sales prices or cost price of one Kg grain = $0.15
9. Kg grain to pay the yearly costs 6/0.15 => 40kgs.
10. percent age of saved grain to pay the cost =>40x100/1500 2.7 percent
This 2.7 percent mean that in order to get profit in this particular example, the improved storage structure must save more than 2.7 percent of grain.
· This is an adequate guideline to help farmers to take rationally decisions according to their surrounding, social context and economic resources.
· This guidelines can be used for farmers as an innovative solution depending upon their ambition, motivations and ability to work towards self-defined goals
· Farmers may choose the solutions that they consider suitable for their conditions depending on their capacity, social context, environment and economy.
· This information is addresses to small and medium maize farmers and if it is achieved it will be a good contribution for the improvement of the food security among the beneficiaries.
In developing countries and in different cultures of agricultural farmer’s communities, many members of the family (male, female, and children) make important contributions to agricultural labours. Women play a very essential and important role during the crops production and postproduction systems either in Asia, Africa, Latin America, etc.
In this section it will be presented and discussed some interesting issues compiled in the Andean zones of South America. In this temperate zone, the maize represents the second crop cultivated on the up land until 3250 m above the sea level. In general the maize is planted after the harvesting of potatoes. This crop left good organic material to be used as fertilizer, therefore for these reason farmers traditionally rotates maize and potatoes. This is an ancestry traditions since Incas time.
On decisions taken by farmers about the type or variety of maize to be cultivated, it is normal that men and women (parents) decide. They cultivates in agricultural areas with irrigation and traditional system. They have also access to land, capital and work. When a family do not have any maize production such as land, capital or work, they use to work to others companies, relatives or others.
The agricultural activities of maize are done usually with the participation of the family members. Eventually due to unavailability of work in the community some members move away and therefore hand labour for farmers is scarce, they need and use supplementary hand labour by reciprocal accord (no payable) or interchange of service with others.
The different activities which usually are required for maize production and post harvest operations depend upon the efforts, and these are summarized in the next table 26.
| Table 26: Activities distribution during production and post harvest operations for maize | ||||
| Activity | Gender | |||
| During Production Practices | ||||
| Tilling | M | W | Ch | |
| Ploughing | M | W | Ch | |
| Sowing | M | W | Ch | |
| Weeding | M | W | Ch | |
| During Post harvest Operations | ||||
| Harvesting | M | W | Ch | |
| Heaping | M | W | Ch | |
| Selection | M | W | Ch | |
| Bagging | M | W | Ch | |
| Cutting of Plant | M | W | Ch | |
| Dehusking | M | W | Ch | |
| Shelling | M | W | Ch | |
| Commercialization | M | W | Ch | |
| M=Men; W=Women; Ch=Children. | ||||
According to table 26 above, the heavy work which require more effort are made by men. In contrast, activities requiring less effort such as weeding, shelling etc are done by women and eventually children. The sowing is done by women because they believe that women are the symbol of fertility and therefore it is expected future good production. Usually children made slight activities such as watering, grain collection, shelling, weeding. Similar behaviour has been found in other developing countries of Africa and Asia. In a general context women have more participation in operations related to post harvest operations and a good example is showed in the following figure 43.
Fig. 43. Sale of maize, main activity done by women in Andean
areas.
(Source: BIOSOMA-FAO-IPGRI, 1999)