Seasonal worker program receives award of merit
Canada: OFVGA honours foreign agricultural resource management service
At the OFVGA annual banquet in January the Foreign Agricultural Resource Management Services received the award of merit. FARMS runs the seasonal agricultural worker program, which brings labourers in from developing countries to help farmers during the busy times of year. The program is open to all farmers, but is mostly utilized by fruit and vegetable growers during planting the harvest.
“The service of FARMS to our industry is invaluable and the organization is a very deserving winner of this award,” said Art Smith, CEO of the OFVGA. “Our industry depends very strongly on the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program as our core labour program. Without the work of FARMS, this program wouldn’t be in place and Ontarians would not be able to enjoy many of our great locally grown fruit and vegetable crops.”
Because of the often short and very labour-intensive nature for many crops, farmers often need a lot of help for a short period of time. The seasonal worker program began in the 1960s when a group of Jamaican workers came to Ontario to work on horticulture farms.
FARMS was created in 1987, and in the ensuing years the seasonal worker program has grown to see roughly 20,000 workers come to Canada each year.
“FARMS is a tireless advocate for labour issues in Ontario horticulture, and both farmers and the many thousands of people who come here every year to work depend on their efforts to keep the program going,” said Smith, adding more than a half of Canada’s horticulture market would be lost to imports if it weren’t for the program.
Source: www.niagarathisweek.com