A harvesting machine is an example of a labor aid. While for many seasonal farmworkers, the economic priority is to earn the maximum amount of income, finding affordable, adequate, and safe housing is another important goal. Such an activity can be expensive and divert a grower's attention away from the primary task of agricultural production. However, as growers' concerns over labor availability increase, housing is being viewed as an option to secure individual farm labor requirements. For larger operations, housing may also provide a means to gain greater control over a farm's work force and, therefore, be able to implement more efficient labor management practices.
Training is a third area employers can utilize to recruit and secure a more stable work force.
Implied in this strategy is the opportunity for workers to advance within a company or farm employment ranks. Larger corporate farms tend to hire workers who specialize as equipment operators, pesticide applicators, irrigation specialists, field foremen, etc. Summary Availability of seasonal farmworkers and external pressures from worker advocacy groups are two sources of risk fruit and vegetable growers face in southwest Florida. Machine harvesters and guest worker programs will alleviate some of these risks by reducing the demand on the current domestic labor pool of farmworkers. As with any risk management strategy, the potential gains from lowering a risk must be weighed against the increase in unit costs of production.