The challenge to meet tobacco\u27s labor requirements by domestic sources has prompted tobacco growers to seek a foreign source of labor through the H-2A program. The H-2A program is the only legally sanctioned program allowing farm employers to bring foreign workers into the country to perform seasonal and temporary agricultural work. The article profiles H-2A program participants in major tobacco growing states. The results will help Extension personnel better understand their constituents\u27 labor needs and inform the design of specific Extension programs and workshops in farm labor management, labor laws and regulations as well as labor cost-saving measures

Feleke, Shiferaw T

Schaffer, Harwood D

Starnes, Jane H

Tiller, Kelly J

Clemson University: TigerPrints

The Journal of Extension Volume 50 Number 6 Article 23 12-1-2012 Profiling H-2A Program Participants in Tobacco Farming: Implications for Extension Jane H. Starnes University of Tennessee, jhowell7@utk.edu Shiferaw T. Feleke University of Tennessee, sfeleke@utk.edu Harwood D. Schaffer University of Tennessee, hdschaffer@utk.edu Kelly J. Tiller University of Tennessee, ktiller@utk.edu This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Starnes, J. H., Feleke, S. T., Schaffer, H. D., & Tiller, K. J. (2012). Profiling H-2A Program Participants in Tobacco Farming: Implications for Extension. The Journal of Extension, 50(6), Article 23. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/joe/vol50/iss6/23 This Research in Brief is brought to you for free and open access by the Conferences at TigerPrints. It has been accepted for inclusion in The Journal of Extension by an authorized editor of TigerPrints. For more information, please contact kokeefe@clemson.edu. Profiling H-2A Program Participants in Tobacco Farming: Implications for Extensionhttp://www.joe.org/joe/2012december/rb6.php?pdf=1[12/17/2012 1:04:13 PM]December 2012Volume 50 Number6Article Number:6RIB6Profiling H-2A Program Participants in TobaccoFarming: Implications for ExtensionJane H. StarnesDirectorCenter for Tobacco Grower Researchjhowell7@utk.eduShiferaw T. FelekeResearch AssociateCenter for Tobacco Grower ResearchEmail: sfeleke@utk.eduHarwood D. SchafferResearch Assistant ProfessorAgricultural Policy Analysis Centerhdschaffer@utk.eduKelly J. TillerAssociate Professorktiller@utk.eduDepartment of Agricultural and Resource EconomicsUniversity of TennesseeKnoxville, TennesseeAbstract: The challenge to meet tobacco's labor requirements by domestic sourceshas prompted tobacco growers to seek a foreign source of labor through the H-2Aprogram. The H-2A program is the only legally sanctioned program allowing farmemployers to bring foreign workers into the country to perform seasonal andtemporary agricultural work. The article profiles H-2A program participants in majorProfiling H-2A Program Participants in Tobacco Farming: Implications for Extensionhttp://www.joe.org/joe/2012december/rb6.php?pdf=1[12/17/2012 1:04:13 PM]tobacco growing states. The results will help Extension personnel better understandtheir constituents' labor needs and inform the design of specific Extension programsand workshops in farm labor management, labor laws and regulations as well aslabor cost-saving measures.IntroductionWhile it is debatable that there is a nationwide shortage of farm labor (Levine,2009), it is evident that agricultural producers in some production sectors andgeographical regions have difficulty finding sufficient domestic farm workers duringcertain stages of the production cycle. The two geographical areas most affected bythe lack of sufficient domestic hired labor are the southeast and western regions,where tobacco and specialty crops are widely grown, respectively. The challenge ofmeeting labor requirements with domestic sources has prompted these producers toseek foreign labor through the H-2A guest worker program. The H-2A program is theonly legally sanctioned program allowing U.S. farmers to bring foreigners into thecountry to perform seasonal and temporary agricultural work.To participate in the H-2A program, farm employers must first apply for laborcertification from the Department of Labor (DOL) (U.S. DOL, 2009). Laborcertification depends upon two things. One, applicants must demonstrate the needfor H-2A workers by establishing the lack of sufficient U.S. workers who are able,willing, and qualified, and who will be available at the time and place needed, toperform the intended job. To establish this, applicants must actively engage in therecruitment of U.S. workers, coordinating recruitment activities through theappropriate State Workforce Agency and advertising openings in appropriate media.Two, applicants must establish that the entry of the foreign workers will notadversely affect wages and working conditions of comparably employed U.S.workers. To do so, applicants must offer the job at the highest wage rate of thefollowing five wage rates: the Adverse Effect Wage Rate, the prevailing hourly rate,the agreed upon collective bargaining rate, or the federal or state minimum wagerate. In addition, applicants must provide benefits, including: free housing thatmeets applicable federal and state safety and health standards, either kitchenfacilities or three meals per day at no more than the DOL-set price, transportationand travel subsistence expenses, workers' compensation insurance, and guaranteedemployment for 75% of the contract period. Applicants must also provideemployment to any qualified, eligible U.S. worker who applies for the job opportunityuntil half of the work contract period has elapsed.Profiling H-2A Program Participants in Tobacco Farming: Implications for Extensionhttp://www.joe.org/joe/2012december/rb6.php?pdf=1[12/17/2012 1:04:13 PM]Given these stringent requirements, the number of H-2A farm workers annuallyadmitted into the country accounts for a small proportion of the total agriculturallabor force. With 2.6 million workers, including paid family members, employed onfarms and ranches in the country (U.S. Department of Agriculture, 2007), just over3% of all hired farm workers come through the H-2A program. Tobacco growers areimportant participants in the program. "In the past, many small tobacco operationswere able to handle the workload by supplementing operator and family labor withhired local laborers. As tobacco acreage per farm increases, family labor and thesupply of local residents willing to work with tobacco may no longer meet laborrequirements" (Dohlman, Foreman, & Da Pra, 2009, pp. 32). The top four tobaccogrowing states (North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia) accounted forabout 23% of the H-2A certified positions in 2009 (U.S. DOL, 2009)—over 8% of the237,096 farm workers in these states.Despite the importance of H-2A for tobacco growers, little is known about theirhousehold characteristics. This article profiles participants of the H-2A program inthe top four tobacco growing states and draws implications for Extension.MethodsData for the study reported here came from the Center for Tobacco GrowerResearch's 2010 mail survey of tobacco producers. A standard questionnaire wasadministered to a sample of 8,354 growers, of whom 3,516 completed and returnedthe questionnaires, representing a 42% response rate. Of those who completed andreturned the questionnaires, 1,995 reported they grew no tobacco in 2009.Therefore, the number of active growers in the study is 1,521.The survey was conducted in three waves in order to maximize the response rate.Even so, the response rate was low. Hence, the data was tested for non-responsebias using the approach of comparing initial and late responders on key variables.Growers who responded to the third mailing were considered as late responders.Miller and Smith (1983) suggest that non-respondents tend to be similar to laterespondents.Respondents were divided into two groups. Participants were defined as tobaccogrowers who hired at least one H-2A worker in 2009. Non-participants were definedas those tobacco growers who reported hiring no H-2A workers during 2009.Relationships were then hypothesized between participation in the H-2A programand household characteristics, which were analyzed using a logistic regression.Profiling H-2A Program Participants in Tobacco Farming: Implications for Extensionhttp://www.joe.org/joe/2012december/rb6.php?pdf=1[12/17/2012 1:04:13 PM]Results and DiscussionOne of the accepted approaches used to test for non-response bias is comparing thevalues of key variables from both the initial respondents and the late respondents.Results showed no statistical difference between these groups (at p <0.05)suggesting that results can be generalized to the survey population.Table 1 presents a summary of the farm and family characteristics of the sampletobacco growers. The majority of the sample tobacco growers are full-time farmerswith a high school education, operating farms generating farm cash sales of $10,000to $250,000. About 23% of the sample participated in the 2009 H-2A program.Comparing participants and non-participants, the proportion of college-educated, full-time farmers growing flue-cured and dark tobacco and operating farms with totalcash receipts of $250,000 or more with 50% or more coming from tobacco isrelatively higher among participants than among non-participants.Table 1.Demographic and Farm Characteristics of H-2A Program Participantsand Non-ParticipantsCharacteristics Categories ParticipantsNon-Participants OverallH-2A program (%) 23.0 77.0  Average Age(years) 54.0 57.0 56.0Educationallevel (%)High schooleducation48.5 58.7 56.4Collegeeducation51.5 41.3 43.6AverageHousehold size(#) 3.0 3.0 3.0Occupation (%)Full-timefarmer66.3 47.9 52.1Part-timefarmer33.7 52.1 47.9Profiling H-2A Program Participants in Tobacco Farming: Implications for Extensionhttp://www.joe.org/joe/2012december/rb6.php?pdf=1[12/17/2012 1:04:13 PM]Tobaccotype (%)Burley 34.5 79.7 69.3Flue-cured 36.0 10.4 16.3Dark 29.5 9.9 14.4Total farm cashreceipts (%)Less than$10,0001.5 13.7 10.9$10,000 to$249,99945.8 71.2 65.4$250,000or more52.7 15.1 23.7Proportion ofcash receiptsfromtobacco (%)Less than50%26.5 48.0 43.150% ormore73.5 52.0 56.9State (%)KY 48.4 55.2 53.6TN 11.3 16.0 14.9NC 27.0 10.0 13.8VA 11.3 4.5 6.1Others 2.0 14.3 11.6Table 2 provides the ML parameter estimates of the model, measuring the change inthe predicted log-odds (logit) of participating in the H-2A program for a one unitchange in a given predictor, holding all other predictors constant. Education andoccupation are found to have a statistically significant relationship with the likelihoodof participating in the H-2A program while age of the grower and household sizewere not significant, ceteris paribus. Growers with a college education are 39% morelikely to employ H-2A workers than growers with a high school education. This maybe explained by the information-intensive nature of participation in the H-2Aprogram.Table 2.ML Parameter Estimates and Odds Ratio of Selected VariablesParameter OddsProfiling H-2A Program Participants in Tobacco Farming: Implications for Extensionhttp://www.joe.org/joe/2012december/rb6.php?pdf=1[12/17/2012 1:04:13 PM]Variables estimates SE ratioIntercept -11.238 14.182  Age 0.002 0.007 1.002Educational level 0.331** 0.154 1.392Household size 0.055 0.065 1.056Occupation 0.330** 0.166 1.391Tobacco type 1: Flue-cured 2.132*** 0.410 8.435Tobacco type 2: Dark 1.578*** 0.199 4.845Total farm cash receipts 1: Mediumfarms - total farm cash receipts of$10,000 to $250,0000.571* 0.318 1.769Total farm cash receipts 2: Largefarms - total farm cash receipts of$250,000 or more1.965*** 0.342 7.13450 percent or more of cash receiptsfrom tobacco0.880*** 0.169 2.412State 1: KY 3.245*** 0.551 25.673State 2:TN 2.538*** 0.581 12.654State 3:NC 1.928*** 0.461 6.877State 4:VA 3.122*** 0.531 22.691Note. ***, **, * denote statistical significance at 1%, 5% and10%Similarly, full-time tobacco growers are 39% more likely to hire H-2A workers thanthose with off-farm employment. This may be due to the fact that growers whowork off-farm have less time to dedicate to the H-2A process and the managementof a group of H-2A workers.As expected, flue-cured and dark tobacco growers are more likely than burleygrowers to hire H-2A workers. Flue-cured and dark tobacco growers are more thaneight times and five times as likely as burley growers to be H-2A employers. Thiscan be explained by the greater number of labor hours required on flue-cured andProfiling H-2A Program Participants in Tobacco Farming: Implications for Extensionhttp://www.joe.org/joe/2012december/rb6.php?pdf=1[12/17/2012 1:04:13 PM]dark tobacco farms compared to burley farms. Dark tobacco and burley productionrequires over 300 and 150-200 hours of labor per acre, respectively (Snell & Powers,2009). In contrast, largely mechanized flue-cured tobacco production requires a littleover 100 hours of labor per acre (NCSU, 2010). However, the average number ofacres of flue-cured tobacco is six times that of burley and dark tobacco. As a result,the total number of labor hours required for flue-cured production at the farm levelis the highest, followed by dark tobacco farms. Comparing flue-cured and darktobacco types, flue-cured growers are twice as likely as dark tobacco growers to hireH-2A workers.Total farm cash receipt, used as a proxy for farm size, is positively related to thelikelihood of hiring H-2A workers. Growers with medium and large farms are,respectively, about two and seven times as likely as those with small farms (totalfarm cash receipts less than $10,000) to participate in the H-2A program. Onepossible explanation is that growers who operate larger farms can spread out thecosts over larger acreage.As expected, the proportion of cash receipts from tobacco has a positive relationshipwith the likelihood to hire H-2A workers. The higher the percentage of total farmcash receipts accounted for by tobacco, the higher the likelihood of H-2Aparticipation. Controlling for other predictors, growers earning 50% or more of theirtotal farm cash receipts from tobacco are more than twice as likely to participate inthe H-2A program as growers who earn less from tobacco.Results also suggest that there are regional differences in likelihood of hiring H-2Aworkers. Among the major tobacco states, growers in Kentucky followed by those inVirginia are the most likely states to hire H-2A workers.Conclusion and ImplicationsWith the ongoing increase in the acreage per farm, in the absence of anaccompanying technological change that reduces the tobacco labor hours per acre,Extension should anticipate the increasing importance of the H-2A program in termsof both the number of participants and the number of H-2A workers per farm. Thesechanges pose a unique set of management challenges and suggest the need forExtension efforts in providing farm labor management training, elaborating relevantfederal and state labor laws and regulations, and identifying labor cost-savingmeasures. The effectiveness of such Extension efforts warrants understandinggrowers' labor needs and uses and identifying target groups.Profiling H-2A Program Participants in Tobacco Farming: Implications for Extensionhttp://www.joe.org/joe/2012december/rb6.php?pdf=1[12/17/2012 1:04:13 PM]The study has looked into the use/non-use of H-2A labor on tobacco operations,comparing farm and family characteristics. The use/non-use of H-2A labor to use isassociated with the type of tobacco grown, scale of operation as measured by farmcash receipts, the percentage of income from tobacco, and the level of participationin off-farm employment.Results indicate that tobacco type, total farm cash receipts, regional location,proportion of tobacco receipts, education, and occupation are the most importantcharacteristics—in the same order—that can be used to distinguish between H-2Aparticipants and non-participants. H-2A participants tend to be college-educated,full-time flue-cured and dark tobacco growers operating farms with cash receipts of$250,000 or more with more than 50% of their total farm income coming fromtobacco. Non-participants tend to be off-farm employed burley growers operatingsmall farms with cash receipts of less than $10,000 and less than 50% coming fromtobacco.The identification of the above mentioned farm and family characteristics of H-2Aparticipants and understanding their respective labor needs have importantimplications for Extension.The relative importance of the H-2A program among flue-cured and darktobacco growers suggests that they could face disproportionate impactscompared to burley farms in the event of unfavorable changes in immigrationand labor policy.The relative importance of the H-2A program among some groups of tobaccogrowers suggests that agents can better design and target tobacco educationalprograms in farm labor management, farm labor laws and regulations,labor/cost saving measures.This information provides an opportunity to improve the efficiency of Extensiondelivery by concentrating efforts on a target group of interest and customizingthe content of programs in light of the particular growers' labor needs anduses.Extension workers involved in enterprises other than tobacco can use the methodsused in the study reported here to identify the target group of producers based ondemographic and farm characteristics and customize the content of Extensionprograms.Profiling H-2A Program Participants in Tobacco Farming: Implications for Extensionhttp://www.joe.org/joe/2012december/rb6.php?pdf=1[12/17/2012 1:04:13 PM]Several studies have demonstrated the importance of targeted Extensioninterventions to achieve increased farm productivity and sustainability (Oelker, 1995;Brasier, Hyde, Stup, & Holden, 2006). Generally, study results can prove useful inidentifying the target audience for a given issue, evaluate the information needed,and design a program that meets the needs of the targeted farm audience.While the H-2A program remains a viable and steady source of labor for now, theissue of further mechanization should receive serious consideration in light of theongoing increase in the acreage per farm with the resulting concentration ofproduction on fewer and larger farms.ReferencesBrasier, K., Hyde, J., Stup, E., & Holden, A. (2006). Farm level human resourcemanagement: An opportunity for extension, Journal of Extension [On-line], 44(3)Article 3RIB3. Available at: http://www.joe.org/joe/2006june/rb3.phpDohlman, E., Foreman, L., & Da Pra, M. (2009). The Post-buyout experience: Peanutand tobacco sectors adapt to policy reform. Retrieved from:www.ers.usda.gov/publications/eib60Levine, L. (2009). The effects on U.S. farm workers of an agricultural guest workerprogram, Congressional Research Service. Retrieved from:http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/crs/95-712.pdfMiller L. E., & Smith, K. (1983). Handling non-response issues. Journal ofExtension [On-line], 21(5). Available at: http://www.joe.org/joe/1983september/83-5-a7.pdfOelker, E. (1995). Dairy excel: Not Extension business as usual. Journal of Extension[On-line], 33(6) Article 6FEA5. Available at:http://www.joe.org/joe/1995december/a5.phpSnell, W., & Powers, L. (2011). Tobacco economics in the post-buyout era. 2011-2012 Kentucky & Tennessee Tobacco Production Guide. Retrieved from:http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/id/id160/id160.pdfUnited States Department of Agriculture. (2007). Census of Agriculture, statesummary highlights. Retrieved from:http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publications/2007/Full_Report/usv1.pdfUnited States Department of Labor. (2009). Foreign labor certification report: 2009Profiling H-2A Program Participants in Tobacco Farming: Implications for Extensionhttp://www.joe.org/joe/2012december/rb6.php?pdf=1[12/17/2012 1:04:13 PM]data, trends and highlights across programs and states. Retrieved from:http://www.foreignlaborcert.doleta.gov/pdf/2009_Annual_Report.pdf.Copyright © by Extension Journal, Inc. ISSN 1077-5315. Articles appearing in theJournal become the property of the Journal. Single copies of articles may bereproduced in electronic or print form for use in educational or training activities.Inclusion of articles in other publications, electronic sources, or systematic large-scale distribution may be done only with prior electronic or written permission of theJournal Editorial Office, joe-ed@joe.org.If you have difficulties viewing or printing this page, please contact JOE TechnicalSupport© Copyright by Extension Journal, Inc. ISSN 1077-5315. Copyright Policy

Profiling H-2A Program Participants in Tobacco Farming: Implications for Extension

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Clemson University: TigerPrints