Human labor is the primary factor of production in indigenous agricultural systems, yet the OTganization and scheduling of labor, and effect of agricultural intensijcation on these processes, remain poorly understood. While most theoretical and empirical studies have emphasized overall labor input and ejiciency, this s t u 4 of the K o f a r of Nigeria analyzes the scheduling and mobilization of labor in ecological context. Detailed labor diariesfor a sample of households over an entire agricultural y l e reveal intricate schedules that balance the labor demands of a variable crop complex with a set o f complementary mechanisms for mobilizing labor. With rising population density and market impetus, the K o f a r have increased gross labor inputs, adjusted crop mixes to reduce weeklyjuctuations in labor, and extended the agricultural season. Labor demands are met by three social mechanisms of labor mobilization, which offer varying sizes of laborpool, degree offlexibility, and type of compensation.
HE INTERNATIONAL ATTENTION DEVOTED TO FAMINE AND FOOD SHORTAGES inT Africa usually brings with it a call for agricultural change involving Green Revolution plant varieties, chemical fertilizer, irrigation, mechanized equipment, and fossil fuel energy. It is seldom remarked that agrarian intensification, the process of increasing output per unit of land area and time (Boserup 1965(Boserup , 1981Turner and Doolittle 1978), can be achieved using indigenous ecological knowledge, local crops, and traditional or innovative low-energy methods of turning the soil, weeding, manuring, crop rotation, soil conservation, livestock husbandry, and arboriculture (Netting, Cleveland, and Stier 1980:187;Richards 1985). Instead of importing energy for farming at high cost and with low caloric efficiency (Pimentel and Pimentel 1979; Bayliss-Smith 1982), this type of intensification relies primarily on human work effort and the social mobilization and management of labor. In the classic Boserup model of intensification, more hours per day and days per year of work by more members of the rural society raise production to meet the demand of a growing population, or as Turner and Brush (1987:3 1-35) add, to fulfill the demand of an expanding market economy. Labor becomes a substitute for increasingly scarce land, but it can also be used when capital limitations make technological change too expensive.But labor power is notjust a standard measure of energy expended. It is applied within specific environmental constraints of season, rainfall, soils, and differing crop requirements. It is differentiated by age and gender. It is performed by single individuals, by households, by exchange groups, and by hired hands whose motivations and effectiveness GLENN DAVIS STONE is Assistant Professor,
