![]() ![]() New on-farm investments can be high in terms of both financial outlays and learning, but they are increasingly profitable in the face of rising wages and labor shortages. Adopting labor-saving technologies can require changing plant varieties, orchard and vineyard layouts, cultivation practices, and machinery, entailing significant start-up costs. Most successful innovations are feasible only with advancements in cultivars, mechanical engineering, and information and technology (IT), highlighting the need for interdisciplinary coordination. In this article, we examine a producer’s decision to adopt a labor-saving technology with potentially high up-front adoption costs and document the expected labor savings associated with several innovations, many of which are not yet in commercial use. At the same time, they will need to invest in human capital, learning to work with new technologies and manage a “teched-up” farm workforce. Farms should anticipate making increased investments in labor-saving technologies, which typically require large up-front costs but can pay off in the long run through reduced labor costs and less dependence on seasonal labor. Successful innovation will require substantial up-front investments in interdisciplinary research combining horticultural and engineering expertise. The cultivation and harvest of the most delicate farm products, like fresh fruits and vegetables, are difficult to mechanize. farms continues to contract, farmers will have to invest in labor-saving technologies if they wish to remain competitive in a global economy.Įvidence from previous mechanization events in agriculture indicates that innovation and adoption of labor-saving agricultural technologies is a long process. Hertz and Zahniser (2013) document that local farm labor shortages were pervasive throughout the United States in 2011. Richards (2018) finds evidence of persistent labor shortages for harvest workers in California, given a marginal value product of labor insufficient to support higher wages that might attract additional workers. agricultural workforce became less migratory in the 1990s, limiting farmers’ ability to adjust to short-term shocks by drawing workers from other regions. ![]() farm workers, is transitioning out of farm work, just as the United States did in the mid-twentieth century and as economies around the globe typically do as they develop. Charlton and Taylor (2016) find that rural Mexico, the primary source of U.S. Recent studies provide evidence that the farm labor supply in the United States is becoming less elastic. "Innovations for a Shrinking Agricultural Workforce." Choices. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |