Labour and machinery analysis in organic farming

Summary

Organic farming is generally considered to require more labour than conventional farming, as the assumption is that chemical inputs are substituted by factors like new knowledge, practices and labour. However, the overall effect on labour and machinery usage when carrying out a transition from conventional to organic farming depends in a complex way of the type of production, different farm-specific factors, etc. In order to investigate the labour usage in organic farming as compared with conventional farming an integrated approach involving labour budgeting, labour profiles, labour quality, etc. has to be applied.