Minten Bart, Mohammed Belay, Tamru Seneshaw
International Food Policy Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
International Growth Center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Eur J Dev Res. 2020;32(5):1402-1429. doi: 10.1057/s41287-020-00315-7. Epub 2020 Oct 21.
Driven by the fast spread of private irrigation pumps, there has been a rapid expansion of intensive vegetable cultivation in the central Rift Valley in Ethiopia, making it the most important commercial vegetable production cluster in the country. Supporting that "quiet revolution" has been an inflow of migrant laborers-paid through daily, monthly, or piecemeal contracts, with few employment benefits attached to them-and a gig economy as widely used contractors organize, among others, mechanized land preparation, the digging of wells and ponds, seedling propagation, and loading of trucks. Almost 60% of the irrigated area is cultivated by medium-scale tenant farmers relying on short-term rental contracts. It seems that gig economies characterized by flexible contract arrangements implemented by outside contractors, which are increasingly fueling sophisticated sectors in developed countries, are important in these commercial agrarian settings in Africa as well. We further find that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to significant disruptions of this model, as seen by more limited access to services and the unavailability or high price increases in factor markets, especially for labor, and large but heterogenous price changes in output markets.
在私人灌溉泵迅速普及的推动下，埃塞俄比亚中部裂谷地区的集约化蔬菜种植迅速扩张，使其成为该国最重要的商业蔬菜生产集群。为这场“悄无声息的革命”提供支持的，是大量流动劳动力的涌入——他们通过日薪、月薪或计件合同获得报酬，几乎没有任何就业福利——以及一种零工经济，因为广泛使用的承包商组织了机械化土地准备、打井和挖池塘、育苗以及卡车装载等工作。近60%的灌溉面积由依靠短期租赁合同的中型佃农耕种。似乎以外部承包商实施的灵活合同安排为特征的零工经济，在发达国家正日益推动着复杂行业的发展，在非洲这些商业化农业环境中也很重要。我们还发现，新冠疫情导致了这种模式的重大中断，表现为服务获取更加有限、要素市场尤其是劳动力市场无法供应或价格大幅上涨，以及产出市场出现大幅但各异的价格变化。
