2021 GHAR, it became clear that the scope of automation extended beyond harvesting. To account for the automation opportunities related to weeding, thinning, planting, spraying and more, the Global Harvest Automation Report was rebranded to the Specialty Crop Automation Report (SCAR). The GHAI initiative carries the benefit of having a consolidated viewpoint to approach many of the issues that agriculture is facing and offers data-backed options to move toward solutions. As an ongoing effort, each report will build on the one that came before it, giving the advantage of seeing development and growth in automation adoption year-over- year. Those who add each report to their resource libraries every year will have valuable insight into automation trends readily available as technologies advance and gain adoption traction. Growers have a history of seeking innovative solutions to challenges, and a 2022 grower survey indicated that labor availability, profitability and regulatory hurdles rank highest as key challenge areas. One of the tallest hurdles growers, packers and shippers are currently facing is a labor shortage, which is a challenge that comes
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from a culmination of sources. One source is an aging workforce, and the SCAR reports that this is an issue in both the U.S. and EU. The SCAR notes: “The number of managers aged below 35 declined more than any other age group…In 2016, just 5 percent of managers were under 35 [in the EU]. This suggests that younger generations are not joining the agricultural labor force at a rate at which they can replace retiring older generations. The flight of younger managers is akin to what happened in the U.S., where the average age of principal farm operators is now 58, up eight years
from 1982.” The hope of automation as it relates to an aging workforce is two-fold; along with accounting for the lack of people there is also the hope that advancing the technological requirements of the industry will attract the younger generation to the sector, particularly for those whose families have already contributed so much to the success of growing operations in the past. One of the remedies to fill the labor gap has been H-2A certifications, with the number of H-2A job certifications having grown more than 500 percent since 2005 and totaling 317,000 in 2021. According
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Western Grower & Shipper | www.wga.com
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