Angel Cortez was ready for a change.
Cortez, 43, is a Mexican immigrant who has worked in farming, landscaping and restaurants since arriving in California more than 25 years ago. But he said a work injury suffered nearly a decade ago has made physical labor — jobs that require him to stand or walk for long periods — extremely painful.
He had been looking for work he could do mostly sitting down, but his options seemed limited: He went to high school in Mexico but isn’t fluent in English and wasn’t comfortable using a computer. So when he heard about a program at Merced College that would help him develop new farming skills, he was encouraged.
Cortez, a father of four, is part of the first cohort of a new certification program launched last month at seven Central Valley community colleges that aims to ensure farmworkers are not displaced as the state’s powerful agriculture industry transitions to a more mechanized future.
As more farms move to drip irrigation systems, tractors that propel themselves with GPS guidance and robots that remove weeds with focused laser beams, the certification program aims to prepare 8,400 workers for higher-tech, higher-paying jobs in agriculture by the end of 2026. It is free to workers who enroll.
The program is one component of a broader effort to boost agricultural innovation in the Central Valley. In 2022, the federal Economic Development Administration awarded $65.1 million to a coalition of organizations, led by the Central Valley Community Foundation, that are working to integrate technology into the region’s vast agricultural operations.
The opportunity comes at a time of transition for California agriculture. The industry faces higher labor costs, the result of state laws that raise the minimum wage and require overtime pay for farmworkers. The workforce is aging, and immigration from Mexico, once a steady source of new workers, has slowed. And farmers face pressure to evolve long-standing methodologies for crop care as the state enacts stricter regulations on groundwater and pesticide use, and global warming creates more extreme seasonal weather patterns.
The industry is turning to robotic harvesters, tabletop hydroponics and other developing technologies to address some of those challenges.
As farming methods advance, workers need to be retrained, said Marco Cesar Lizarraga, executive director of La Cooperativa Campesina de California, a statewide association of agencies that administer farmworker service programs.
“As we know it, the farm worker will no longer exist in another 10 or 15 years,” Lizarraga said. “It’s going to be a much more skilled farm worker and much more capable of operating robotic equipment.”
Cannon Michael, president and CEO of Bowles Farming Company in Merced County, echoed those sentiments, saying, “We're constantly trying to look for ways to automate, shift or have higher-paying jobs for people with higher functionality.”
To get a sense of the types of skills farmworkers will need to master in the new agricultural economy, college instructors turned to agricultural leaders for feedback.
Growers said they need workers with a variety of technical skills — people trained in using tablets and computers, who understand the complex regulations surrounding pesticides and who can advance into management roles, said Karen Aceves, regional director of AgTEC, the workforce initiative within Fresno-Merced’s Future of Food Innovation initiative.
“We need people who can do math, who can solve problems, who are critical thinkers, who understand the entire agricultural value chain,” Aceves recalled the producers saying. “We don’t know what the industry will be like in five or ten years, so we want people who know how to farm… And we want to keep the farm workers we have.”
The program design was also based on surveys of more than 10,000 farmworkers, conducted by grassroots organizations at tax preparation events, food distribution sites, and flea markets. Most respondents had a high school education or less. They preferred to access online courses from home and after work hours, and they wanted to travel 10 miles or less for an in-person class.
Students enrolled in the course study at their own pace through online courses and videos and take in-person exams on college campuses. The program is the first in the California community college system designed as a competency-based education, meaning that instead of earning traditional grades, students must demonstrate mastery of specific skills, said Cody Jacobsen, director of agricultural innovation at Merced College.
Early lessons have focused on digital literacy, including how to use the computer, email and different systems for tracking fertilizer and pesticide use, said Karl Montague, who teaches the course at Merced College. Later in the program, students will learn how to operate and troubleshoot high-tech equipment, and how to read and understand chemical labels. The course concludes with an introduction to workplace communication, including how to create an effective resume.
The universities involved have hired student support coordinators, who help recruit students, assist them with class registration and connect them with resources such as laptops and transportation.
In conjunction with Merced College, the certificate program is offered at Madera, Fresno City, Clovis, Reedley, Lemoore and Coalinga colleges. It is available in English and Spanish and open to all, regardless of immigration status.
At Merced College, seven of the 23 students enrolled so far are farmworkers, according to a college spokesman. The other students include construction workers and participants in a program for formerly incarcerated adults. They range in age from 19 to 57.
Several weeks after starting the course, Cortez said he feels much more comfortable using the computer.
“I didn’t even know how to turn it on before,” she said. Now, “I have my daughter’s laptop and I take it to places with Wi-Fi to study in the evenings.”
It seems his career options are already expanding. He recently completed an independent forklift driving course at Modesto Junior College. And as he continues to study for his agriculture certificate at Merced College, he said he hopes to put his new computer skills to use as a DoorDash driver.
Antonio De Loera-Brust, communications director for the United Farm Workers, cautioned against overestimating the impacts of programs like the community college effort, noting that the vast majority of farmworkers will continue to work in the fields for years to come.
She acknowledged the benefits of training farmworkers for better-paying jobs, but noted that “the idea that everyone gets a promotion is not a scalable solution to farmworker poverty.”
“Let’s not forget all the farmworkers who, for various reasons, will never have that opportunity,” he said. For that reason, he said, the union remains focused on improving farm jobs through better wages and safer working conditions.
This article is part of The Times article. Equity Information Initiative, funded by the James Irvine Foundationexploring the challenges faced by low-income workers and the efforts being made to address them. California's economic divide.
