Farmers Eager to Create More Jobs
The rise of mega-farms has been blamed for contributing to rural depopulation on the Prairies, but farmers − even large-scale operators − are actually working hard to create jobs to attract people to rural communities.
“We’re seeing a lot of value-added opportunities that would allow farm businesses to grow and would also grow local economies,” said David Rolfe, president of Keystone Agricultural Producers and a grains and special crops farmer in Elgin, Manitoba.
“But there’s a lot of frustration among producers at not being able to get the skilled people they need for these new enterprises. If you have expansion plans but you can’t get the skilled people you need, it’s a huge roadblock.”
Despite an already-too-hectic workload, Rolfe feels so strongly about the labour challenges facing agriculture that he’s become heavily involved in the newly launched Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council. It’s known as a “sector council” – one of 32 federally funded, industry-driven organizations that work with employers, employees, educational institutions and governments to deal with human resource challenges facing Canada’s businesses.
“There’s just a real need – I believe we have a great opportunity to move the industry forward but we need to be able to recruit, train and hold onto skilled labour,” said Rolfe.
“Agriculture is not seen as a so-called ‘sexy industry’ to be in – but that’s a misconception. The industry is developing far, far faster than people think because of new technology. Whether it’s bio-engineering, developing health and wellness products or taking advantage of new opportunities in existing areas, the scope is practically endless.”
Even those massive grain farms have tremendous job-creation potential, said Rolfe. They are not only fueling economic spin-off work – for agrologists, marketers, and other service providers – they are also supporting sideline businesses.
“There are a lot of enterprises which want to keep key people year-round, not just bring them in for seeding or harvest,” said Rolfe. “So they’re willing to create new enterprises, such as small-scale manufacturing, in order to have business activity in the winter. That creates a need for training programs, be that a welding course or whatever.
“The challenge is finding ways to help people develop the skills so they can help build careers in our industry.”
“Training is one of the top priorities for the new Council, said Danielle Vinette, executive director. “We’re also focused on finding solutions to labour shortages in the agriculture sector, especially seasonal and skilled workers, by addressing recruitment and retention issues.”
“We need to talk more about the positives in agriculture,” said Vinette. “And, we need to get this information into our schools and to share successful ventures amongst the industry itself.”
“We also have to be more innovative – to identify new sources of labour and to find new ways to access these labour sources.”
Guided by representatives from commodity and provincial groups across Canada (www.cahrc-ccrha.ca), the Council is working to raise awareness of producers, the educational community, and governments about the human resource issues facing today’s agriculture sector – and some of the solutions to these issues.
Rolfe is a believer that problems create problem-solvers.
“You look at the aging of farmers and that’s a problem,” he said. “But older farmers are looking for younger people to not only help them with hands-on production work, but also to assume a managerial role.
“That’s going to create opportunities for bright young people to move into our industry and move it forward. But we need to help that process along. We need to help farmers attract the right people and we need to provide the training so those people can reach their full potential.”
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