By Pratik Bhattarai | The Eastern Graphic
A host of issues ranging from an aging demographic, inadequate rural transportation and technology are all impacting PEI’s agricultural workforce, which has gradually declined over the last decade.
In 2016 there were 4,868 jobs on Island farms. That number has dwindled to 4,390, according to the Vital Signs 2025 report, released last week by the Community Foundation of PEI.
In addition, the number of farm operations with at least one employee decreased from 479 to 442.
Laurie Loane, executive director of the PEI Agriculture Sector Council, says the average age of a farmer is now 57.
“Farming is not interesting to young people and older people are having a hard time keeping up with technological changes. So, they are being pushed out of farming,” she said.
Alvin Keenan, co-owner of Rollo Bay Holdings Ltd, one of the biggest potato farms on the Island, agrees. Keenan’s operation packages all year for shipment to markets across North America.
Rollo Bay Holdings does employ some foreign workers under its seasonal program, which covers eight months of the year, he said.
Government’s decision to slash foreign workers, and immigration in general, is negatively impacting many businesses that are now struggling to find workers, he said.
“Immigrant labour makes it possible for everyone to have a job,” he says.
According to the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council (CAHRC), foreign workers accounted for 11 per cent of PEI’s agriculture workforce in 2017, while nationally the percentage was 17 per cent. That year, 190 sector jobs went unfilled on PEI.
Today, Keenan said some farms rely on foreign labour for up to 90 per cent of their workforce, while others can be as low as 10 per cent, depending on the nature of crops and time of the year.
Keenan says interprovincial trade barriers prevent the industry from bringing in workers from other provinces.
The PEI Department of Agriculture did not respond to a request for information on interprovincial barriers regarding farming before press time.
Island farms are adapting by investing more in technology, which is changing the way people farm. But it is not without challenges as well.
“Automation makes it easy to operate with fewer farm workers, but we still need technicians and properly trained people to operate those machines,” says Keenan.
CAHRC predicts that by 2029, the shrinking farm workforce and growing demand will create a larger labour supply gap, going from a 240-worker surplus in 2017 to a 220-employee deficit in 2029.
Agriculture relies on transportation to get product to market, and this is becoming more challenging, said Brian Ching, owner of Russel Ching Ltd, a 600-acre farm that sells potatoes to markets across the country.
“Back when people did not need bigger trucks and a special license, it was not as hard as it is now to find drivers,” the Souris farmer said.
Loane said promoting all aspects of agriculture among youth is essential to tackling the problem in the long term.
“Not every student fits into university. We need to make agriculture interesting to the young people,” she said.
Programs like Team Food Island provide training and employment to high school and post-secondary students in seafood processing, agriculture and aquaculture.
Another program, Agriculture in Classroom is essential as it introduces children to agriculture from an early age.
Agriculture in the Classroom is a non-profit organization which operates across the country and provides many programs and events for students to introduce agriculture to them at a young age, so they can build some interest around it when they grow up.
They have programs where students grow their own greens and herbs in their classes, have worm gardens, grow hydroponic plants, and many other activities which help young kids to understand the very basics of farming.
Some of its programs out of a total of 10 are Egg to Chick, Tasty Taters, Light Gardens, Grade 3 Open Farm Day, Worm Gardens, and Grade 3 Little Green Thumbs.
One farming community that has seen growth in the last few years is the Amish. Families started moving to PEI in 2016 in search for cheaper farmland compared to Ontario.
Tony Wallbank, a retired farmer from Dundas, who helped them move to the Island, said initially there were only a few families; however, their current population has reached around 500.
“They’ve set an example and they are showing the younger generation on the Island what farming was like,” Wallbank said.
The PEI Amish typically are involved in mixed farming, raising livestock like hogs and calves and growing crops. Some have workshops and build barns and sheds for other Island farmers as well.
Wallbank said more people should get into mixed farming and they should keep the operations small so they don’t have to invest in expensive equipment.
“It’s important to remember where we came from and what it was like with less modernization,” he added.
