There is now an interest in the question of rural labour markets (RLMs) after long periods when they were regarded as absent from the dynamics of employment, accumulation and poverty in Africa. However, the way in which this question has been conventionally analysed in Mozambique has proved too limited for a coherent approach.
The relevance of a deeper analysis of the patterns and dynamics of labour markets is enhanced when we consider that the workforce is not a simple asset, and that labour markets are central in the productive structure and system of accumulation. This, among other reasons, is because of the linkages they stimulate between different agents and activities in the economy in specific socio-economic and structural contexts.
From an analysis of the current debate and of the literature on the prevailing forms of labour in the rural areas of Mozambique, one notes a contradiction concerning the importance of wage labour. On the one hand, in the conventional analysis, resting on a dualist perspective, the incidence of rural wage labour is regarded as marginal, reflecting the assumption that the countryside is dominated by the subsistence-oriented production of small peasants dependent on the labour force of household members who do not participate systematically in the labour market. Underlying this vision are public policy documents in which much of the analysis is based on data from large-scale official surveys. On the other hand, independent studies show that rural wage labour, often taking temporary forms (casual and seasonal work) and under differentiated, multiple and precarious conditions, is predominant and relevant in the Mozambican rural areas. Most of this evidence is supported by field studies and/or by independent statistics. Hence it seems crucial to investigate this contradiction in order to understand what is really happening. It is argued that the method of analysis (analytical approach and the method of data collection and analysis) underlying distinctive approaches may make it possible (or not) to understand real rural patterns, where specific forms of labour happen and are developed. From a perspective of the system of accumulation and its link with social reproduction, it is argued that this understanding may have implications for the development of the productive base, of the dynamics of accumulation and of poverty in Mozambique.
The paper is organised into five sections. Following this introductory note, the second section analyses the evidence on RLMs in Mozambique, and particularly on their importance. The third section reflects on why there are gaps in the evidence on RLMs. The fourth section discusses the implications of the negligence of the RLMs for the productive structure in Mozambique, and the last section deals with the conclusions.