COMPARTECIPATION
I. NATURE
Sharecropping is an agricultural contract by which an individual worker provides his labor for specific crops in exchange for a predetermined share of the produce. The contract is annual and may pertain to a single crop or a group of crops. It may encompass an entire farm in its organic unity, or, more commonly, it may refer to specific plots of land. Typically, the sharecropper receives a parcel of land already sown or planted with productive woody crops and performs all necessary manual operations until harvest, also bearing certain cultivation expenses in proportion to the share of the produce he receives.
This contract generally applies to crops that require a large amount of labor (such as corn, sugar beets, tobacco, tomatoes, wheat) or those that demand both a high quantity and quality of labor (such as vines, almond trees, etc.).
Sharecroppers are often the same agricultural laborers who use this contract to supplement the cash wages they earn from other activities. It is not uncommon for the same laborer to be a sharecropper in several agricultural enterprises, even those located at a distance from one another.
This figure of the worker retains the characteristic traits of the agricultural laborer. However, it should be noted that in addition to laborers, many small landowners and tenants also act as sharecroppers, particularly in the South, when the farm they manage is insufficient to meet the basic needs of their families.
II. TYPES OF SHARECROPPERS
Within the infinite variety of types and subtypes of sharecroppers, the following fundamental groupings can be identified:
a) The *partitanti* of the Po Valley (especially in Veneto and Emilia), where the division of the produce ranges between 30% and 40%. They almost always contribute to the expenses for artificial fertilizers;
b) The sharecroppers of the large estates (*masserie*) in southern Italy. Here, both casual and permanent workers appear, entrusted with crops such as fava beans, wheat, and fruit-bearing trees. The share of the produce ranges between one-third and half of the total;
c) The sharecroppers on extensive lands in the South. Here, the contractual tangle is at its most complex. No longer laborers, but small landowners and small tenants (*terraticanti*) take on the work. The arrangements range from fixed quotas of produce to proportional quotas, which are low in themselves and even lower in terms of actual produce, given the low productivity and high risk of the crops.
III. ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF SHARECROPPING
The positive aspects of the sharecropping contract can be enumerated as follows:
a) It is a typical associative contract;
b) It allows the sharecropper to employ the labor potential of his relatives, including minors, thereby significantly increasing the overall income of the family unit, which is thus strengthened;
c) It trains the laborer in the management of a small agricultural enterprise (sharecropping, small tenancy).
Its drawbacks, though not exclusive to this system, include:
d) The low labor income often imposed by current contractual modalities;
e) The intense exploitation of family labor.
IV. PROSPECTS FOR IMPROVEMENT
Certainly, the sharecropping contract is also susceptible to innovation with the dual aim of increasing the worker’s entitled compensation and elevating his human dignity.
In general, and at the trade union level, the focus is uniformly on achieving a more advantageous share of the produce and the abolition of the obligation to contribute to expenses, insofar as possible reducing this burden. However, in this matter, it is essential to proceed with caution and a thorough understanding of the economic possibilities of agricultural enterprises. Excessive demands may render the contract unfeasible, and it may happen—as has already occurred—that the entrepreneur prefers to revert to pure wage labor. This would result in a contractual involution, a halt in the process of transformation and transition of the laborer toward socially more desirable relationships.
In the sharecropping contract, the productive aspect must never be overlooked. Any reform must also aim to increase production, from which alone can real improvement in the sharecropper’s living conditions be expected. Adjustments to the share of the produce should therefore be made judiciously, with careful consideration of local situations and possibilities. The sharecropper should also be assured of extensive technical assistance (such as baking courses for farmers, experimental fields, etc.) and the assimilation, in terms of social welfare, of the forms of social security already in place for other categories of workers.
For other enterprises, see: AZIENDA; IMPRENDITORE; PARTECIPAZIARISMO.