The agriculture industry – like every industry – has had to grapple with seismic changes over the past few years in the way it operates and conducts business. In terms of labour, the industry has dealt with inefficiency and widespread shortage as a result of many factors.

Stringent immigration laws, a declining interest in agricultural employment, and increasing competition for labour supply from the construction and landscaping industries are causing labour-management issues in agriculture. As the lingering after-effects of COVID-19 persist, productivity, as well as labour management, remain a challenge in the agriculture industry.

The effects of labour shortages and management issues can be mitigated; however, it requires careful planning and preparation, particularly the adoption of advanced technologies.

Changing Landscape of Labour Management in Agriculture

Farm labour management is more than just scheduling planting or harvesting tasks for employees or labourers. It involves making decisions on farm operations, having strategies in place to ensure all processes run effectively and efficiently, and engaging in proactive management.

Today, rapid digitalisation, growing population, increasing pressures from climate change, consumers’ changing tastes and concerns about how food is produced, soil erosion, and biodiversity loss have brought significant changes in how the industry operates, and farm labour management is not an exception.

Each farm is becoming more unique with a different landscape, soil, technology, and potential yields. This has prompted a quick need to transform farm labour management by employing a suite of practices and new technologies.

Time Tracking – The Foremost Step for Modern Farm Labour Management

In modern agribusinesses, time tracking has become a challenge due to seasonal and remote labourers. Managing the time sheets of these labourers while staying in compliance with the wage laws can be time-consuming and overwhelming for enterprises. However, recordkeeping and tracking employees’ hours are essential parts of labour management in modern agriculture.

Automating time tracking of farm labourers using digital technologies can help agribusinesses to make labour management more efficient. Agribusinesses can assign a unique QR code to every labourer to keep accurate track of the entire workforce’s activities. These technologies accurately record labourers’ attendance and working hours, thus minimising the possibility of errors or time theft.

AI-based Attendance to Improve Labour Efficiency

The agriculture industry is characterised by an ever-changing and dynamic workforce that is infamous for poor overtime management, unchecked absenteeism, and payroll errors on the account of constantly evolving schedules and project requirements. Therefore, accurate reporting of labourers’ attendance remains important for the success of both small and large agricultural projects.

Over the years, agribusinesses relied on manual methods such as the use of spreadsheets to track labour attendance. However, this method is becoming a significant obstacle as farms grow in size and food production demand is at record highs. AI-based attendance tracking system is thus emerging as a key solution to this farm labour management problem.

An AI-based face attendance system using face-recognition technology allows the seamless and automatic attendance of a large number of farm workers. It also enables supervisors to accurately track the check-in and check-out times of every labourer through a mobile application. This way, AI-based attendance works significantly to the advantage of agribusinesses as it prevents any errors or malpractices in the labour attendance system.

Tech-Driven Farm Labor Management System Simplifies Payroll System

For agricultural enterprises to run smoothly, it is important that farm labourers are compensated fairly and accurately. An employer or farm supervisor must always track the number of hours their employees work. A tech-driven labour management system or an AI-based attendance system removes the need for manual data entry of employee details into payroll systems.

Efficient tracking of farm labourers through AI-based systems improves the provision of performance-based incentives. Such systems can help agribusiness avoid errors or malpractices and completely eliminate spending more on labour wages.

Such a system helps agribusinesses track the overall work done by every labourer accurately. This contributes to the precision of wage calculations and payments. It also allows comprehensive reporting of everything including working hours and overtime along with vacation, leaves, and other relevant information, all of which can be considered while calculating the wages of labourers.

Labour remains one of the largest cost centres in the farming industry. Growers are increasingly experiencing a continued rise in labour costs and dealing with inefficient labour management measures. Agribusinesses are thus faced with challenges to effectively manage the rising labour cost, remain compliant with regulations, and drive a profitable business.

FarmERP is uniquely positioned to continue delivering breakthrough agritech solutions to simplify both on-field and off-field activities and improve overall labour management for agribusinesses. Contact us today to know how we can make labour management more efficient and productive for your agribusiness.