Rendimiento de la mano de obra en la recolección de café, en Villa Colón, Costa Rica

Abstract

This paper is a preliminary report on the efficiency of handwork on coffee cropping in Villa Colón, Costa Rica. It was found, that early in the harvesting season the average amount of coffee cropped for each picker is very low, but it increases, gradually, as the crop ripes. After a period of four weeks at a high level of efficiency, the weekly average for picker decreases again, but never reaches the extremly low initial level. A table is presented that shows the weekly demand of pickers necessary for harvesting the crop in an area of one "manzana" (6988.96 m2) assuming a yield of 17 fanegas (1 fanega equals 400 liters). In the authors opinion, these data can be useful to those farmers located in regions ecologically comparable to Villa Colón.