Angel Cortez was ready for a change.
Cortez, 43, is a Mexican immigrant who has worked in agriculture, landscaping and restaurants since arriving in California more than 25 years ago. But he said a workplace injury nearly a decade ago made manual labor — jobs that required him to stand or walk for long periods of time — extremely painful.
He has tried to take on jobs that he can do primarily sitting down. But his options felt limited: He had a high school education in Mexico but doesn't speak English fluently and wasn't comfortable using a computer. So when he heard about a program at Merced College that would help him develop new skills for farming, he took a leap.
Cortez, a father of four, is part of the first cohort of a new certificate program that launched last month at seven community colleges in the Central Valley. The goal is to ensure farmworkers aren't displaced as the state's leading agricultural industry transitions to a more mechanized future.
As more farms switch to drip irrigation systems, tractors that move with GPS guidance, and robots that clear weeds with targeted laser beams, the certificate program aims to move 8,400 workers to high-tech, higher-paying jobs in agriculture by the end of 2026 to prepare .It is free for employees who register.
The program is one component of a larger effort to spur agricultural innovation in the Central Valley. The federal Economic Development Administration awarded $65.1 million in 2022 to a coalition of organizations led by the Central Valley Community Foundation that are working to integrate technology into the region's massive farms.
The opportunity comes at a time of transition for California agriculture. The industry is facing higher labor costs as state laws 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 are under pressure to evolve tried-and-true methods of growing crops as the government imposes stricter regulations on soil water and pesticide use and climate change leads to more extreme seasonal weather.
To address some of these challenges, the industry is turning to robotic harvesters, hydroponic tabletop farming and other developing technologies.
As farming methods evolve, workers will need to be retrained, said Marco Cesar Lizarraga, executive director of La Cooperativa Campesina de California, a statewide association of agencies that manage farmworker service programs.
“As we know, in another 10, 15 years, the farm worker will no longer exist,” Lizarraga said. “It will be a much more accomplished farm worker and much more of a robotic equipment operator.”
Cannon Michael, president and CEO of Bowles Farming Co. in Merced County, echoed those sentiments, saying, “We're always looking for ways to automate or change or create better-paying jobs for better-functioning individuals.”
To get a sense of the skills farmworkers will need to master in the new agricultural economy, the college's instructors reached out to agricultural leaders for feedback.
Growers said they need a workforce with diverse technical skills, people trained to use tablets and computers, who understand the complex regulations surrounding pesticides and who can be promoted to leadership positions, said Karen Aceves, regional director of AgTEC, the workforce initiative within the company's Fresno-Merced Future of Food Innovation initiative.
“We need people who can calculate, who can solve problems, who think critically and understand the entire value chain of the network,” the producers recalled. “We don’t know what the industry will look like in five or 10 years, so we want people who can grow. … And we want to keep the farm workers we have.”
The program's design also relied on surveys of more than 10,000 farm workers conducted by grassroots organizations at tax preparation events, food distribution sites and flea markets. Most respondents had a middle school education or less. They preferred accessing online courses from home and outside of work hours and were willing to travel a maximum of 10 miles for an in-person course.
Students enrolled in the program learn at their own pace using online courses and videos and take exams on campus. The program is the first in the California community college system to be designed as a competency-based education. That means students will have to demonstrate mastery of specific skills instead of traditional grades, said Cody Jacobsen, director of agricultural innovation at Merced College.
The first lessons focused on digital literacy — including using the computer, email and various systems to track fertilizer and pesticide use, said Karl Montague, who teaches the course at Merced College. Later in the program, students learn to operate and troubleshoot high-tech equipment and read and understand chemical labels. The course ends with an introduction to workplace communication, including how to create an effective resume.
Colleges have hired student support coordinators to help recruit students, help them register for courses and connect them to resources like laptops and transportation.
In addition to 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 is open to everyone, regardless of immigration status.
At Merced College, seven of the 23 students enrolled so far are agricultural workers, according to a college spokesman. The other students include construction workers and participants in a program for formerly incarcerated adults. They are between 19 and 57 years old.
A few weeks into the course, Cortez said he felt much more comfortable using the computer.
“Before, I didn’t even know how to turn it on,” he said. Now: “I have my daughter’s laptop and I use it to study in places with WiFi in the afternoon.”
It seems that his career opportunities are already expanding. He recently completed a separate forklift driving course at Modesto Junior College. And as he continues to pursue an agriculture certificate at Merced College, he hopes to use his new computer skills to drive DoorDash.
Antonio De Loera-Brust, communications director for the United Farm Workers, cautioned against overestimating the impact of programs like community college, noting that the vast majority of farm workers will continue to toil in the fields for many years to come.
He recognized the benefits of training farm workers for higher-paying jobs. However, he noted that “'everyone gets promoted' is not a scalable solution to farmworker poverty.”
“Let’s not forget all the farmworkers who, for a variety of reasons, will never have this opportunity,” he said. For that reason, he said, the union remains focused on improving agricultural jobs through better wages and safer working conditions.
This article is part of The Times Equity reporting initiative, sponsored by the James Irvine FoundationIt examines the challenges faced by low-income workers and the efforts being made to address them California's economic divide.
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