Labour and Crew Management
The plan says 845 hours per hectare per year. The question the plan cannot answer is who works which week — and what happens when they don't show.
Labour is usually the largest controllable cost on a banana farm and the one most often managed by hope. This page maps where the hours actually go, how crews are structured and paid, and what to record — so the labour calculator runs on your numbers instead of benchmarks.
Where the hours go#
Typical mid-range benchmark for a commercial dessert crop, per hectare per year:
| Task | Hours/ha/yr | When it peaks |
|---|---|---|
| Harvesting & loading | 300–350 | Weekly, all year; flushes every 6–8 weeks |
| De-handing & packing | 140–180 | Same day as harvest |
| Weeding & mulching | 70–110 | Wet season; first year hardest |
| Spraying & crop protection | 60–80 | Every 10–14 days in wet season |
| Desuckering & replanting | 50–70 | Continuous light touch; heavy after harvest |
| Irrigation operation | 40–70 | Dry season, often daily rounds |
| Propping & deleafing | 35–55 | Ahead of bunch weight; storm season |
| Fertiliser application | 30–50 | 4–6 splits |
Harvest plus packing is typically 55–60% of all hours. That single fact drives everything else: your crew's real capacity is set by the harvest rhythm, and every other task is scheduled around it.
Crew structures#
| Structure | Best for | Watch out |
|---|---|---|
| Smallholder family | <2 ha, no cash wage | Hidden cost of own labour; still track hours |
| Permanent core + casuals | 5 ha+, steady harvest | Core carries supervision and skill; casuals absorb peaks |
| Full permanent crew | 20 ha+ export | Highest fixed cost; needs full-time supervision tiers |
| Contract (spraying, harvesting) | Tasks with clear units | Quality and residue compliance stay your legal risk |
Day rate vs piece rate: piece rates (per hectare desuckered, per tonne cut) align effort with output and are beloved of harvest crews; day rates protect quality on tasks where speed is the enemy — spraying, de-handing, young-plant care. Many farms blend: piece for harvest, day for everything else. Whichever you use, write the rate down before the work starts; disputes after the fact poison the season.
Supervision and training#
- One supervisor per 8–15 workers in field tasks; tighter for packing-line work where food safety depends on individual practice.
- New harvesters cut their first bunches with an experienced hand watching — a scarred finger downgrades a carton, and a hacked crown infects a mat.
- Spray operators need formal training and, in most jurisdictions, certification: see safety and sustainability and IPM.
- Rotating task assignment prevents the farm collapsing when one specialist is sick.
Records worth keeping#
- Hours by task per block per week — even four weeks of real data beats a year of benchmark.
- Casual labour register: name, days, rate, task — this is also your legal exposure record.
- Harvest tonnes per crew-day — the productivity number that predicts everything.
- Wage cost per tonne — compare against farm-gate price monthly.
All four fit the templates in record-keeping; the aggregation is what the labour calculator does.
Next steps#
- Run your numbers: labour calculator.
- Fold wages into costs: economics and records, farm budget, cash-flow planner.
- What to buy instead of hiring: equipment and mechanisation.
- Legal baseline and welfare: safety and sustainability.