Agricultural employers can now apply for a new competitive grant program to help recruit H-2A workers and improve working conditions as part of a new pilot program launched by USDA.
The Farm Labor Stabilization and Protection Pilot Program will provide $65 million in grants to employers of all sizes in amounts ranging from $25,000 to $2 million to recruit and retain workers, improve working conditions and facilitate lawful migration pathways. Funding comes from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.
“There’s clearly a workforce challenge, which is well-documented in terms of producers and their ability to access enough people,” Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack told Agri-Pulse. “I think it’s fair to say that there’s also a keen desire to make sure that we know how to improve working conditions for those who work so hard on our farms and our ranches.”
Vilsack said the initiative is an “incentive-based program directed at producers” to request resources to defray the costs of getting workers into the United States and ensure that once they arrive their working conditions are acceptable.
He said grant applicants could use the funds to pay for overtime pay, bonus pay and sick leave, housing improvements, and measures to ensure the health and safety of workers.
“All of that can be taken into consideration and factored in determining whether an applicant can successful be awarded resources,” Vilsack said.
The applications will inform USDA what producers need help with through funding.
“Hopefully it helps to inform policymakers in the future, and maybe encourages Congress to eventually get immigration reform and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act passed so that we’re not doing pilots, but we just have a program that works to meet the workforce challenges that we face today,” Vilsack said.
Vilsack said the H-2A program requires transportation to and from the host country. Vilsack said applicants could utilize resources to defray the additional costs of transporting from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, the Northern Triangle region of Central America.
In line with the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, the pilot program also has a goal to reduce irregular migration, including from Central America.
Vilsack said he hopes ag employers can recruit and retain known available workers in a number of countries, including those in the Northern Triangle. The department release said the focus on this region will also offer “economic benefits for foreign for foreign workers and their families, and professional and economic development opportunities for communities that send their workers to participate in the H-2A program.”
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Vilsack said, “Having visited with a number of ambassadors from those countries, I'm told that there are a lot of folks who would love to have the opportunity to work and get trained here in the United States and then eventually, over time, maybe return to their home country and set up their own farming operation, which would be obviously a good outcome."
The grant window is 24 months, allowing employers to use the grant over the course of two production seasons. Applications must be received by November 28, 2023.
Vilsack said USDA plans to make determinations as quickly as possible to allow for use in the next growing season. “It’s our goal and our desire to be able to do it as quickly as we can,” Vilsack said.
Michael Marsh, president and CEO of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, told Agri-Pulse he was pleased to see the release of the FLSP and has been coordinating with the agency over the last several months to find a program workable for its members.
“The initiation of this program is of critical importance to America's farm and ranch families who too often have an inability to find adequate numbers of domestic workers, ready, willing and available, to help plant, nurture and harvest our crops,” Marsh said.
“At the same time this program has the ability to be one of those tools to mitigate irregular migration at our Southern border while stimulating that circular migration that has proven to be so transformative in boosting economic activity in the locations from whence the workers come. Workers come to work and return home transforming their communities,” Marsh said. “A win for America's farm and ranch families, and a win for the workers.”
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