CONDITIONS AND POSSIBILITIES FOR IMPROVING LABOUR EFFICIENCY IN APPLE HARVEST

Investigations into the possibilities of increasing efficiency in picking labour were rendered necessary by the requirement of picking apple at an optimum time as well as by the unfavourable labour supply in fruit producing farms.
Therefore, the major factors acting on efficiency, and the extent of these effects were studied.

The actually acting factors can be divided into three categories:

• characteristics of the plantation and of the fruit

• auxiliary means and machines of picking

• organizational and technological solutions.

Statistical evaluation of data surveys related to the total harvest, and of the data of workday photos taken from time to time by the multi-moment method indicated that the efficiency of picking work is firstly determined by the nature of the factors grouped into the first category.
In comparison to the traditional solutions to be considered as control, in certain cases a performance increase of 40 to 80 per cent was recorded on the joint effect of the factors mentioned.
On the other hand, components of the two other categories, likewise, had notable effect on efficiency.
As regards these factors, the favourable changes resulted in 5 to 20 per cent performance increase.
From the results of investigations it can be stated that by optimizing the factors acting on picking performance, efficiency of the operation can be as much as doubled in comparaison to the traditional solutions but the preparation of harvest resulting in so favourable live labour utilization is started already with the investment decision when selecting rootstock and variety, crown form and training method, and lasts right through the entire production technology to end with appropriate organization.

V Symposium on Horticultural Economics

G. Kollár

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1978.77.31