8pgs, We conducted a survey of New Jersey’s nursery industry to understand the current levels of labor shortage, how this has affected specific tasks related to the production capacity of the industry, and the actual level of mechanization. Survey results identified priority areas needing mechanization. There is a need for greater mechanization in almost all areas of nursery production to reduce the reliance on labor and or improve the efficiency of labor. Other Implications related to Extension programming on nursery mechanization are also discussed.
Okiror , J. J. (author), Twanza, B. (author), Orum, B. (author), Ebanyat, P. (author), Kule, E. B. (author), Tegbaru, A. (author), and Ayesiga, C. (author)
Format:
journal articles
Publication Date:
2021-10
Published:
Academic Journals
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D12402
12 pages, There is growing interest in gender analysis and value chain analysis as tools for ensuring equitable participation in agricultural commodity markets. This study examined the gender factors that influence the patterns and levels of participation by women and men in grain value chains in Uganda. Data were collected from six districts in three regions of Uganda using qualitative gender tools. Findings show that marked division of labour along gender-lines happens at postharvest handling stages where threshing and winnowing is mostly done by women while men supervise storage and also control marketing and incomes. Division of labour is due to socio-cultural ascriptions to the sexes at community level with women having to work for longer hours than their male counterparts. Groundnuts were regarded as women’s crop while soya beans were for men. Regional variations were not significant but there were marked behavioral differences between the poorer and richer households across entire value chains from production to marketing with the poor exercising more caution during marketing to spread risks to the next harvest while the rich preferred one-time bulk sales. Specific interventions are needed to upgrade women participation in grain-legume businesses and scale-up labour saving post-harvest technologies especially draught animals, threshers, tarpaulins and hullers to ease drudgery on women and increase men’s participation.
Via online issue. 1 page., Announcement and brief description of the award-winning ARC feature story, "Overcoming labor challenges," entered by Farm Credit East.
11 pages., Via online article, A “digital revolution” in agriculture is underway. Advanced technologies like sensors, artificial intelligence, and robotics are increasingly being promoted as a means to increase food production efficiency while minimizing resource use. In the process, agricultural digitalization raises critical social questions about the implications for diverse agricultural labourers and rural spaces as digitalization evolves. In this paper, we use literature and field data to outline some key trends being observed at the nexus of agricultural production, technology, and labour in North America, with a particular focus on the Canadian context. Using the data, we highlight three key tensions observed: rising land costs and automation; the development of a high-skill/low-skilled bifurcated labour market; and issues around the control of digital data. With these tensions in mind, we use a social justice lens to consider the potential implications of digital agricultural technologies for farm labour and rural communities, which directs our attention to racial exploitation in agricultural labour specifically. In exploring these tensions, we argue that policy and research must further examine how to shift the trajectory of digitalization in ways that support food production as well as marginalized agricultural labourers, while pointing to key areas for future research—which is lacking to date. We emphasize that the current enthusiasm for digital agriculture should not blind us to the specific ways that new technologies intensify exploitation and deepen both labour and spatial marginalization.
Gallardo, Karina R. (author), Stafne, Eric T. (author), Devetter, Lisa Wasko (author), Zhang, Qi (author), Li, Charlie (author), Takeda, Fumiomi (author), Williamson, Jeffrey (author), Yang, Wei Qiang (author), Cline, William O. (author), Beaudry, Randy (author), Allen, Renee (author), and Washington State University
Mississippi State University
University of Georgia
University of Florida
Oregon State University
Michigan State University
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2018-02
Published:
United States: American Society for Horticultural Science
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 11 Document Number: D10337
7 pages., Via online journal., The availability and cost of agricultural labor is constraining the specialty crop industry throughout the United States. Most soft fruits destined for the fresh market are fragile and are usually hand harvested to maintain optimal quality and postharvest longevity. However, because of labor shortages, machine harvest options are being explored out of necessity. A survey on machine harvest of blueberries (Vaccinium sp.) for fresh market was conducted in 2015 and 2016 in seven U.S. states and one Canadian province. Survey respondents totaled 223 blueberry producers of various production sizes and scope. A majority (61%) indicated that their berries were destined for fresh markets with 33% machine harvested for this purpose. Eighty percent said that they thought fruit quality was the limiting factor for machine-harvested blueberries destined for fresh markets. Many producers had used mechanized harvesters, but their experience varied greatly. Just less than half (47%) used mechanical harvesters for fewer than 5 years. Most respondents indicated that labor was a primary concern, as well as competing markets and weather. New technologies that reduce harvesting constraints, such as improvements to harvest machinery and packing lines, were of interest to most respondents. Forty-five percent stated they would be interested in using a modified harvest-aid platform with handheld shaking devices if it is viable (i.e., fruit quality and picking efficiency is maintained and the practice is cost effective). Overall, the survey showed that blueberry producers have great concerns with labor costs and availability and are open to exploring mechanization as a way to mitigate the need for hand-harvest labor.
30 pages., via online journal., Information communication technology (ICT) and environmental innovation (EI) are
relevant waves of the ongoing technological revolution. We study the
complementarity in innovation adoption to test the research hypothesis that the higher
the diffusion and intensity of usage of ICT and EI, the higher a firm’s productivity
performance might be. However, it is not certain that the use of different innovations
stemming from different innovation paths generates higher productivity. To test our
hypothesis, we use original survey data concerning manufacturing firms in Northeast
Italy including detailed information on both ICT and EI. Empirical evidence shows
that there are still wide margins to improve the integration between EI and ICT in
order to exploit their potential benefits on productivity. The awareness of specific
synergies seems to mainly characterise the heavy polluting firms that are subject to
more stringent environmental constraints, while some trade-offs tend to emerge for
the remaining firms.
11 pages, Online via UI Library electronic subscription., Report of research among farmworker families living and working in three Florida communities. Most reported childcare access as a challenge. Findings offer ideas for industry support of childcare as an important workforce investment.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 124 Document Number: D11198
Notes:
Online from ProPublica. 3 pages., Report of a response to ProPublica by a poultry company, Case Farms, described by government officials as "outrageously dangerous." Focus is on accuracy of information provided and reported.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Document Number: D08868
Notes:
Pages 215-256 in Ormrod, James S. (ed.), Changing our environment, changing ourselves: nature, labour, knowledge and alienation. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan UK, London. 315 pages.
7 pages., Via online journal., A simmering crisis in the Nigerian agriculture today involves labour and the crisis manifests itself in the degree of labour availability, labour demand and labour productivity. One of the major products of this crisis is the increased participation of children in paid, non-familiar agricultural jobs. They are frequently employed as farm labourers, bird scarers, food crop harvesters, processors and hawkers. More than 132 million children work in agriculture. Agriculture ranks as one of the three most dangerous work activities, followed by mining and construction. Child labour is increasing in postharvest processing, transport, marketing and a range of agroindustries. Child labour is maybe one of the most striking indicators identifying vulnerable children and as such pointing to shortcomings in several of the millennium goals as poverty eradication, education for all, gender equality, combating HIV/AIDS and creation of a global partnership for development. Most working children do so after a decision in their parental household. To understand the household labour supply decisions, relation to the labour market and to public interventions is critical in designing programmes in order to achieve the MDGs. The research on child labour represents in this respect a largely untapped resource of knowledge for policymakers in the fields of agriculture, education programmes and poverty reduction programmes. The effect of lack of education opportunities on child labour is well documented, but existence of widespread agricultural child labour also reduces the effectiveness of investment in education. It is recommended in this paper that the legislator should enact laws that will reduce agricultural child labour through redistribution of the nation’s resources, women should be integrated in the fight to combat child labour and that alternative income sources should be provided for rural families whose children are the most vulnerable.
Blau, Francine D. (author) and Ferber, Marianne A. (author)
Format:
Working paper
Publication Date:
1990-09
Published:
International
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 114 Document Number: D11014
Notes:
32 pages., National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Working Paper No. 3447., Broad overview of women's economic status in countries around the world. It examined specifically such important issues as labor force participation, occupational segregation, earnings, education, and the amount of time spent on housework.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: KerryByrnes4; Folder: Presentations at Professional Meetings File Document Number: D01620
Notes:
Kerry J. Byrnes Collection, Lecture and discussion, 25 pages.
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: KerryByrnes4; Folder: Green Revolution Game File Document Number: D01652
Notes:
Kerry J. Byrnes Collection, International Fertilizer Development Center Training Material,9 pages.
(2 copies)
