Located in:
- Program-Specific Requirements for Wagner-Peyser Program (Employment Services)
All Program-Specific Requirements provided for the WIOA core programs in this section must be addressed for either a Unified or Combined State Plan.
e. 2. An assessment of the agricultural activity in the State means: 1) Identifying the top five labor-intensive crops, the months of heavy activity, and the geographic area of prime activity; 2) Summarize the agricultural employers’ needs in the State (i.e. are they predominantly hiring local or foreign workers, are they expressing that there is a scarcity in the agricultural workforce); and 3) Identifying any economic, natural, or other factors that are affecting agriculture in the State or any projected factors that will affect agriculture in the State
Current Narrative:
The top 5 labor intensive crops in WV are hay, apples, corn for grain, soybeans and tobacco. The eastern panhandle has the majority of our agricultural activity and is most active from June-November.
In general, West Virginia employers have difficulty finding workers and agriculture employers are no different. Many agricultural employers rely on the use of foreign labor to meet their need for workers. According to the US Census, 40% of West Virginia residents are either under the age of 18 or over the age of 65 which often makes jobs in agriculture not suitable for that demographic. Additionally, West Virginia has one of the lowest labor participation rates in the nation, so the labor pool for agricultural vacancies is even smaller.
Several of our larger apple growers have experienced issues finding buyers for apples due to a surplus, however many of them were able to take advantage of a joint effort by the USDA and the WVDA to purchase the surplus apples and distribute them to hunger fighting charities across West Virginia.
Due in part to its topography, West Virginia experiences a variety of weather events such as flooding, occasional drought, snowstorms, and high wind, which can adversely affect agriculture in the state. Climate change potentially will enhance these weather events in the coming years: annual precipitation is expected to increase as well as the frequency and intensity extreme precipitation events. Moreover, rising temperatures are expected to increase the rate of soil moisture loss during times of lower-than-average rainfall. While these weather conditions will certainly impact agriculture in West Virginia, it is unknown precisely how they will affect agricultural employment in the state.
Moreover, West Virginia’s rugged terrain has always been a factor in the state’s agriculture. In many parts of the state, particularly in the southern counties of McDowell, Wyoming, Logan, and Mingo, large tracts of flat land are scarce and consequently, farming in this region of the state has historically been of subsistence nature. On the contrary, the terrain in the northeastern counties is less rugged and more conducive to larger-scale agriculture. Historically, the state’s Eastern Panhandle has produced commercial-quantities of fruits and grains and thus most of the state’s paid agricultural workforce is located here. Nevertheless, as urban sprawl has taken place in parts of the Eastern Panhandle over the last 20 years, the area used for farming has declined and may continue to do so. Economic and population growth particularly in Berkeley and Jefferson counties has and will continue to impact agriculture as most of this growth is outside of the agricultural sector.