bring on the illegals as it seems we're heading for a shortage of field workers...oh, that's right...there are plenty of people who are willing to do the work...right?? best you apply!! many jobs opened for winter harvesting...50,000 in Yuma Arizona alone.
Survey paints continued bleak picture for available field workers in Yuma Valley
The tourniquet wrapped around shrinking supplies of available field workers for winter vegetable production will grip even tighter in the future in Arizona’s Yuma Valley.
“We’re in a fairly bleak picture here in the future,” said Kurt Nolte, area associate extension agent for the University of Arizona (UA) Cooperative Extension in Yuma County, Ariz. “We believe there will be a significant labor shortage for years to come.”
The dismal projection is based on just released survey results shared by Nolte during a preseason vegetable workshop held in Yuma in late August. Survey results suggested that 50,000 workers are needed daily in the area’s winter vegetable industry.
Overall, the purpose of the UA survey was to ask farm workers how field labor retention could be improved in Arizona.
The study, funded through the Western Center for Risk Management Education and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will provide support for the development of a strategic labor plan to help reduce risks to growers caused by reduced labor availability.
“In the last 10 to 15 years, the (vegetable) industry in the Yuma Valley has reached a peak and we’re now faced with the lack of a stable workforce,” Nolte said. “We wanted to figure out why that is and what can be done in the short term to alleviate the problem. To paint the picture, it’s kind of bleak.”
much more:
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link to westernfarmpress.com]
United States