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Report tells farmers to brace for shifting agricultural labor
By JIM RUTLEDGE
D.C. Correspondent
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new farm labor report is shining the light on the shifting landscape in the future of foreign-born U.S. agricultural workers, posing new strategies for the nation’s farmers whose livelihoods depend partly on the workforce of nearly 1.5 million-2 million immigrant laborers needed annually.
 
The report – Immigrant and Farm Labor: From Unauthorized to H-2A for Some? published by the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) of Washington, D.C. – sketches a grim labor outlook for farmers who face a declining immigrant workforce from Mexico, from where most of the workers come.

The outlook comes just a couple weeks after farm workers faced a review of legislation on Capitol Hill that addressed the immigrant visa program and protections for farm working conditions.

To confront the changing immigrant farm labor situation, the MPI report finds that agribusinesses hiring immigrant workers are turning to new labor market strategies to keep up with the demand to feed the nation. The author, Philip Martin, an ag economist from the University of California-Davis, said farmers are turning to new guidelines, addressing how they recruit and retain workers; using new farm technologies to aid and stretch their productivity; and turning to a more robust H-2A temporary farm worker visa program.

“The expansion of the H-2A program is due in part to the fact that it removes uncertainty about whether or not a sufficient workforce will be available when needed – a pressing concern,” Martin writes, “particularly following the (2008- 09) recession and the slowdown of Mexican migration to the U.S.”

H-2A guest workers represent a small but rapidly growing share of the hired ag workforce, which has ranged from 1.1 million-1.4 million in the past few years.

During the past two decades, the program has experienced a 12-fold increase from 11,000 visas issued in 1996 to more than 134,000 in 2016, and by the end of the year, could hit just under 200,000 H-2A visas. “In response to the dwindling arrival of newcomers from Mexico,” Martin said, “farm employers are increasing pursuing four strategies to meet their labor needs: satisfy, stretch, substitute and supplement.”

The 17-page study cites satisfying current farm workers to retain them; stretching their output by providing productivity aids; substituting machines for workers; and supplementing current workers with the expanded H-2A visa program, which would extend the seasonal term to year-round jobs.

In targeting specific workers, Martin found businesses are concentrating on recruiting and retention by offering bonuses and health care, better working conditions and transportation and housing costs. For increased productivity, he said workers are being supported with new technologies and given mechanical aids to boost production output. 
 
In other cases, new startup companies from across the country and Europe have designed and deployed robotic machinery or introduced automation to fill positions to help alleviate the declining forecasted pool of farm workers.

Martin writes farmers are investing in farm machinery to keep workers healthy, using hydraulic lifts instead of ladders and using conveyor belts to move produce safely so workers don’t have to carry those heavy bags and crates. Companies like Cultiva Global of Italy and Spain-based Agrobot, and U.S. companies Soft Robotics and Harvest Automation, to name a few, are producing the next generation of farm tools and devices to work alongside farm workers – and in some cases, to fill job slots.

While American workers don’t want the farm jobs, competition is high among immigrant workers who are willing to pay intermediaries to win highly sought USDA certification spots.

Compounding the worries of the shrinking labor force from Mexico is the crackdow on illegal immigrants by the Trump administration that has deported more than 105,000 people since January with another 610,000 cases pending before a backlogged immigration court. Last year, a total of 121,170 people were deported.

To date, immigration officials have said they are not raiding farms to go after illegal immigrant farm workers, but overall are concentrating on hunting down immigrants convicted of crimes or who have overstayed their visas. 
8/18/2017