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Access to Labour: The Role of Opium in the Livelihood Strategies of Itinerant Harvesters Working in Helmand Province, Afghanistan

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STRATEGIC STUDY #4

Final Report June 1999

The sheer amount of labour required to lance the opium poppy capsule and collect the gum means that the majority of opium poppy producing households are required to hire labour during the harvesting period. Indeed, previous fieldwork revealed that 70% of those opium producing households interviewed in UNDCP's target districts of Ghorak, Khakrez, Maiwand and Shinwar, hired labour during the opium poppy harvest.

The number of itinerant harvesters required by the landowner will ultimately depend on the size of the field to be harvested, the number of lances that will be conducted, and the availability of other sources of cheap labour, including family and sharecropping labour. Therefore, in order to obtain sufficient labour to harvest their opium poppy some landowners may employ a collection of individuals or one or more groups of itinerant harvesters. The result is there are often itinerant harvesters from a number of different provinces working together in the same field along with relatives and sharecroppers.

Both respondents and key informants reported that the recruitment of itinerant harvesters tends to be conducted at the district bazaar. Therefore at the point at which the harvest is due to begin in any district, those wishing to be employed as itinerant harvesters congregate at the district centre.

Key informants suggest that the landowner's preference is for skilled itinerant harvesters due to the short harvesting period for opium poppy and the losses that can be incurred due to poor lancing. The result is that those without experience may find it difficult to obtain work as an itinerant harvester unless they have an experienced harvester who is willing to support their recruitment. In Nawzad, landowners were witnessed delegating the entire recruitment process to experienced itinerant harvesters. Moreover, the influx of labourers into Nawzad due to the payments being offered, reportedly led to limited opportunities for employment for inexperienced itinerant harvesters. Indeed, Nawzad is the only district in which none of the respondents were working as itinerant harvesters for the first time in 1999.

Prior to employment an agreement is reached between the landowner and itinerant harvesters. These agreements concern the duration of the harvest, the exact number of lances to be undertaken, and the nature and amount of the payment that will be made by the landowner. Key informants reported that if it becomes obvious to the itinerant harvesters that the yield from the crop will be poor and therefore their final payment lower than expected, it is not possible for them to abandon the crop. The agreement made between the two parties is considered binding and both are committed to fulfilling their obligations under it. It is reported that both informal village institutions and more formal bodies, such as the local authorities, will enforce an agreement if necessary.

Few respondents reported that they worked for the same landowner each year. Indeed, the variance in the time of the harvest of opium poppy each year and the demands of respondents own agricultural land would seem to mitigate against such habitual arrangements. Consequently, recruitment would seem to be more of a function of the time of the opium poppy harvest in the district, the availability of itinerant harvesters, and the results of the negotiation between landowner and itinerant harvesters, than traditional links based on family, tribe or friendship.

9. The mobility of itinerant harvesters

Few of the respondents interviewed in Marja and Nade-e-Ali were found to be from the Kajaki, Musa Qala, or Nawzad. Indeed, respondents from these three districts were generally found to conduct their first harvest in Musa Qala, Nawzad or Kajaki, often on their own land, before travelling north to Baghran to undertake a second and final harvest.

Those respondents who were found to conduct the opium harvest in three separate districts were from Marja, Nad-e-Ali and Baghran, in Helmand province and Oruzgan or Ghor. Those from lower Helmand typically began the opium poppy harvest on their own land before travelling north to conduct a second harvest in Musa Qala, Kajaki or Nawzad. Their final harvest of the year would be in the most northern reaches of Helmand in Baghran. Similarly, those respondents from Baghran followed a similar route before completing the harvest on their own land in northern Helmand (see Box 2). The respondents from Oruzgan travelled from southern Helmand to Kajaki, Musa Qala or Nawzad before travelling eastwards to Deh Rawud or Tirinkot to complete the harvest in their own village. Due to the timing of the opium poppy harvest in Baghran approximating that in Oruzgan, none of the respondents from Oruzgan reported working as itinerant harvesters in the upper reaches of Helmand province.

Generally respondents from Ghor moved from the first harvest in southern Helmand northwards to Kajaki, Nawzad or Musa Qala before conducing a final harvest in Baghran. After completing the harvest in Baghran, respondents from Ghor travelled north, returning to their own land, typically to harvest their rainfed wheat. Indeed, respondents from Ghor reported that they had typically focused their work as itinerant harvesters in Helmand in previous years. None of those interviewed reported that they had worked in either Oruzgan or Qandahar, although UNDCP field staff have encountered Taimani harvesters in UNDCP's target districts of Maiwand and Ghorak in Qandahar province. However, fieldwork suggests that respondents from Helmand were more mobile working in a number of different provinces, including Helmand, Qandahar and Oruzgan.

Despite mobility within the region, few respondents reported that they had worked as itinerant harvesters in any of the other main opium poppy producing regions in Afghanistan. Indeed, only one respondent had worked as an itinerant harvester in the eastern region, harvesting opium poppy in Nangarhar. This respondent reported that he was from Kabul and was employed as an itinerant harvester in a village in Marja where his father was the local mullah.

It is important to recognise that for almost one third of respondents reported that they would be returning to their own land to harvest opium at some point during their travel between the different opium poppy producing districts. Moreover, 72% of respondents indicated that they would be returning to their own land to tend to their own crops, many foregoing the possibility of working as an itinerant harvester in another opium producing district. For instance, many respondents from Helmand reported that they would be returning to their own land to plant their summer crops, in particular maize and mung beans, rather than conduct another harvest in the province.

This tendency to give priority to household agricultural production over wage labour opportunities would suggest that the income earned from working as an itinerant harvester is merely an important supplement to household production rather than a substitute for it. Indeed, whilst most respondents reported that they tended to work as itinerant harvesters each year, they indicated that the number of districts that they would work in would depend on the demands of their own agricultural land and whether their household production could meet their family needs.