Evolving agricultural labor markets

Minimum wage increases and agricultural employment of locals and guest workers

“…While farm labor research, especially regarding minimum wage, is limited outside of the US setting, Charlton et al (2021) document that farm labor shortages are an ongoing issue across a diverse set of counties. They also document that the use of migrant labor, including guest workers, is a common feature of agriculture worldwide.…”

Image dataset of important grape varieties in the commercial and consumer market

“… The early identification of the desired grape type is critical due to the long seeding duration (approximately # of years) along with the effort and cost associated with their growth [3] . Conventional methods for the identification of the type for a seedling requires expert knowledge while at the seeding site where the effort and cost associated with the involved labor can be significant [4] . The development of a classification model for grape class identification with higher accuracy can be an important undertaking providing significant advantage with respect to the economic factors as well as timely identification.…”

“…Conventional methods for the identification of the type for a seedling requires expert knowledge while at the seeding site where the effort and cost associated with the involved labor can be significant [4] .…”

Automation and social impacts: winners and losers

“…Examples of all four S's can be seen in more developed countries today. Real farm wages in the United States of America increased steadily throughout the first few decades of the twentyfirst century (Charlton et al, 2019). Some farm employers, like FirstFruits Farms in Washington State, seek to provide more generous benefits including management training programmes, continuing education, low-rent housing near the farm, access to childcare, investment in a local health clinic, and access to community health educators who serve farm workers (First Fruits Farms, undated).…”

“…Employers can even strategically arrange workers into crews to maximize positive peer effects across workers (Hill and Burkhardt, 2021). Automation of labour-intensive tasks typically increases as wages in the farm sector rise, thus making mechanization more profitable (Charlton et al, 2019;Pingali, 2007). Mechanical harvest of raisin grapes required not only mechanical innovation, but also the breeding of a raisin grape that ripens earlier in the season and can be dried on the vine (Charlton et al, 2019).…”