Farm Business Strategies to Cope with Delayed Arrival of H-2A Workers During the Pandemic

Summary

Even when H-2A visa processing was not disrupted during the pandemic, H-2A workers had to contend with port-of-entry restrictions and screening. In Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida, H-2A workers arrived about 4 to 5 weeks later than expected. Business strategies employed by farms to cope with such delayed arrival resulted in about 20% deterioration in household incomes.

Situation

When the pandemic’s social distancing mandates substantially slowed overall economic activity, the farm sector was expected to thrive better than other industries as farming supplies the economy with essential goods that consumers prioritize in their purchase decisions during crises. Hence, the farm sector’s real concern during the pandemic is not necessarily a decline in the total demand for its goods and services, but rather the price-related shocks and “disruptions to supply chains” that are partially driven by the mobility and availability of the needed labor force to sustain farm operations during the COVID-19 pandemic (Smith and Glauber, 2020). The importance of the H-2A guest farmworker visa program in supplying the needed foreign farm labor inputs has actually grown in recent years. In 2019 it supplied more than 27.43% of the farming sector’s total hired workers – a significant jump from about 7% ten years ago. When pandemic conditions kicked in, the government promptly released regulations that ensured that H-2A workers’ availability will not be hampered. These include the temporary final rule, excluding H-2A visas from suspended visa processing activities at consular offices, and granting essential travel status to H-2A-related travels. Indeed, H-2A foreign labor certification and visa petition approvals remained high by historical standards. However, port entry and border crossing data indicate an overall decline of about 96% -- especially in April 2020 when most farms started to require the services of farm workers. If farm businesses continued to face steady high consumer demand, how can they supply the market adequately if their labor force is deficient of workers – especially its usually highly reliable foreign workers hired under the H-2A program?

Response

Through a grant from the Georgia Farm Bureau (GFB), a survey on the H-2A employment experiences of agribusiness firms during the pandemic was conducted in Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida – coincidentally among the top 5 H-2A state patrons over the past several years. The survey instrument was distributed via email to farms with approved H-2A farm labor certifications in the last quarter of 2019. These farm business patrons were retrieved from Department of Labor records. Two outreach bulletins were developed to report the findings of the survey, with the first bulletin devoted to business effects of H-2A workers’ delay and the farms’ coping strategies; and a second bulletin focusing on the domestic farm employment alternative. Results of this study will be presented at the 2021 Annual GFB Convention in December. A journal article is also being prepared to be submitted to a major agribusiness journal.

Impact

Our study’s results indicate that about 30 to 45 H-2A workers indeed arrived late in their work places during the pandemic. These workers were about 4 to 5 weeks late in their arrival. Given these operating constraints, farm business respondents to our survey indicated various coping strategies – the popular strategies being greater reliance on family members, reducing off-farm employment time, resigning from off-farm jobs, and modifying production methods in favor of less labor-intensive alternatives. These decisions, however, resulted in about 20% deterioration in their farm household incomes. The domestic labor alternative was only explored in 30% of the cases and resulted in a 16% reduction in incomes, perhaps due to relative lower worker productivities vis-à-vis their foreign (H-2A) counterparts.

State Issue

Other Programming

Details

• Year: 2021
• Geographic Scope: Multi-State/Regional
• County: Clarke
• Location: College Station, Athens
• Program Areas:
  • Agriculture & Natural Resources