Nangula Shejavali
28 November 2008
A bout 70 per cent of the Namibian population directly or indirectly depends on agricultural activities for their livelihood, although the sector only contributes to about 6 per cent of the country's gross domestic product.
Over 27 per cent of the working population is employed in the agricultural sector.
The sector is divided into two - commercial and subsistence farming.
In the commercial sector, which is largely white-dominated and contributes to about 65 per cent of agricultural output, agriculture consists primarily of livestock ranching.
Animal products, live animals and crop exports jointly amount to roughly 5 per cent of Namibian exports.
The Agricultural Employers' Association (AEA) on Wednesday launched its bi-annual wage survey, which looks at trends in commercial agricultural employment, particularly on wages of agricultural employees.
The survey finds that farm workers in the commercial agriculture sub-sector earn slightly more that the amount prescribed by the minimum wage.
In 2003, a minimum wage for agricultural workers was set and gazetted, implementing an entry level wage of N$2,20 per hour for all workers in this sector, along with housing, food rations, and an additional allowance of N$210 per month for workers required to live on their employment premises.
The survey shows that most commercial farm workers receive an average cash wage of N$3,81 per hour.
However, this rate differs for different job functions in the sector, with farm managers earning an average rate as high as N$27,65, and seasonal workers earning on average as low as N$2,66 per hour.
General workers, who make up 57,6 percent of the various job categories defined, earn an average of N$3,57 per hour.
On average, commercial farms employ 6,53 employees per employer, down from the average of 8,01 in 2006.
Derek Wright, the chairman of the AEA, explained that this is a result of scaling down on labour in the sector, and expressed that in the long run, one could expect to see further decreases, due to the high labour cost.
In addition to this downscale, however, the services of 17 per cent of employees were terminated between 2006 and 2008, largely due to employees' resignation, absenteeism without leave, and dismissals (19 per cent).
Dismissals were mainly as a result of alcohol abuse, theft, other dishonesty, and underproductivity.
Further, the report indicates that the total average remuneration package for permanent employees on commercial farms is valued at N$2 031,67.
Of this amount, N$685,70 goes towards housing, N$195,54 to transport of employees and their children, and N$66,63 towards the keeping of livestock, leaving employees with a monetary remuneration of N$1083,80.
Of this N$1083,80, workers are, on average, given a cash wage of N$ 698,43 (or 64 per cent), a cash allowance of N$55,73 (or 5 per cent), dry food rations of N$34,71 (or 3 per cent), and N$265,07 (or 24 per cent) in wet rations, and about N$29,86 (or 3 per cent) in other farm produce.
Most of the employers sampled indicated that their employees receive salary increases annually or throughout the year, and that bonuses are provided in the form of incentives such as breeding stock, clothes, and food, with an average value of N$1 000,00 per annum.
While earnings above a minimum wage are certainly positive, the underlying question should be whether this minimum wage, or the current average wage constitute a living wage for agricultural employees.
According to Wright, the agricultural sector is in talks through the Namibia Agricultural Labour Forum (NALF) to renegotiate the minimum wage, which should apply not only in the commercial subsector, but in the subsistence subsector as well.
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