Building a Stronger Agricultural Workforce - Part One

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

The number one challenge of most farmers is labor. But solving this issue isn’t as simple as a new tool or technology. It takes a commitment to human capital, and an investment that many farmers don’t have the resources to make on their own. That’s why Washington’s tree fruit industry partnered with the Washington State Department of Agriculture and Washington State University to develop an educational pathway to build a stronger workforce for the future. Jon DeVaney is the president of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association.

DeVaney… “Our industry in agriculture is big and important in the state, but we're not singular employers the way a Boeing or Microsoft might be with vast numbers of employees working for a single corporate entity. There's a lot of individual family operators. And those farms don't always have the internal training capacity to ramp up new employees to new roles. And so doing this on an industry-wide basis for those in agriculture and particularly in tree fruit, moving into those roles, made a lot of sense.”

The programs are designed to create a horticulturally knowledgeable leadership to carry the industry into the future.

DeVaney… “This was what the workers themselves and those first supervisors themselves were telling us that they felt was needed. And it was something that then we had to figure out as industry and as educational institutions and agencies, how to deliver that effectively to them.”

These programs are designed for farm workers who wish to improve their management abilities and advance their career in agriculture.