There are currently 122,000 vacant jobs in Canada’s agriculture sector. This number is only expected to grow due to an aging workforce where more people are expecting to retire, alongside fewer working people and fewer young people entering the industry. These vacancies are impacting farmers. We’re seeing people working unsustainably long hours, giving up on expansion plans, and leaving the industry altogether. So, how can we start closing this gap?

Host Crystal Mackay explores with Jennifer Wright, Executive Director of the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC), the extent of the human resources challenges facing the industry and what supports there are for farmers to navigate some of these obstacles.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:50 Data on farm-worker shortages
05:04 Attracting new people to agriculture: overcoming hurdles
08:00 Strategies for addressing the labor shortage
09:15 Use of temporary foreign workers
10:05 Reimagining the workforce
12:00 Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council - CAHRC
13:30 Supporting farmers with human resource management
16:00 Jennifer’s story
17:50 The future of human resources in Canadian agriculture
19:50 Advice for farmers

Links:
-Video: Carbon Farming 101 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRY8hujkNMM&t=72s
-The Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council: https://cahrc-ccrha.ca/
-AGRI Jobs: https://cahrc-ccrha.ca/programs/agri-jobs
-Video: How AgriSkills helps farm workers keep their skills up to date (CAHRC) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvicPJJ4goY
-Report: Skills Needs for Workers in the Growing Plant-Based Protein Industry in Manitoba and Saskatchewan (Smart Prosperity Institute) https://institute.smartprosperity.ca/Plant-Protein-Jobs-Skills-Needs

Credits:
Host: Crystal Mackay https://ca.linkedin.com/in/crystal-mackay-683b26a

Producers: Meredith Martin https://twitter.com/meredithmartin and
Cara Stern https://twitter.com/carastern

Production coordinator: Rebecca Babcock https://ca.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-babcock

Music: Dustin Stern http://dustinspace.com

The Ag Podcast is produced by Generate Canada https://generatecanada.ca/ with support from Co-operators https://www.cooperators.ca/en/insurance/farm and the Smart Prosperity Institute https://institute.smartprosperity.ca/

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