Farmers struggle to find workers

As the festive season nears, farmers across Jamaica are grappling with a growing crisis - a labour shortage that threatens to cripple crop production and their livelihoods.

Derron Grant, acting CEO of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), revealed that this issue has intensified over the last four years, becoming a widespread concern.

"We have found that a lot of the older farmers are coming out because they just can't find persons. This is more significant in areas like coffee because it requires a lot of manual labour to harvest the coffee. And then there are issues with the pepper farmer demography because it is difficult to find young persons to work and individuals to harvest the peppers and the pig farmers too have issues with getting labour," Grant explained.

He also told THE STAR that a vast majority labourers have sought opportunities in what they deem to be "green pastures", and for those who are still interested in working the sector, the money is just not enough.

"Majority of our labourers are female and one of the challenges that we have when we get male labourers is if you get them today, you can't get them tomorrow. So, it's very inconsistent and it is very expensive," Grant explained. He said that in 2022, farmers paid about $2500 to a labourer for a day's work. By the end of 2023, that price rose to $4000. Now it costs approximately $5000 in most areas, except for coffee where it is significantly more.

"On top of the day's pay, there are a lot of criteria because some a seh you have to give them lunch and the list goes because of the demand. The reality is a lot of farmers can't afford it," Grant said. Past president of the JAS, Lenworth Fulton, agreed that farmers are in a difficult position and said that unless things change quickly, the sector will continue to struggle, resulting in the premature loss of many dedicated farmers.

"People just don't want to work on the farms because there is competition for farm labour, the hotel industry, the transport sector and the retail trade. All those persons that work in those sectors there form the same low-skilled labour pool. So instead of someone climbing a mountain to go pick coffee, they are going to choose to work in a hardware store or supermarket or work in transport," he said.

Still, Grant told THE STAR that along with the agriculture ministry, the JAS is actively trying to curb the issue by using technology such as drip irrigation to eliminate manual watering. However, given the ongoing challenges, he and Fulton opined that importing labourers may be the best solution.

"I see we doing it for teachers, we doing it for nurse, and I think it's only a matter of time before we start doing it for farmers because we do not have labourers, and those who are here do not want to do it," Grant said. Fulton suggested, that the labour ministry should consider not sending labourers on farmwork programmes overseas when they are needed here.