WESTERN BUREAU – After a six-year break, the ministry of labour and social security is again taking new applicants for the US farm work programme. The goal is to recruit 1,000 new labourers.

The new selections began in St Ann on Monday and included applicants from St Mary and Portland. More than 250 persons turned up at Jarrett Park in Montego Bay yesterday for the western regional leg of the selection process, which included the parishes of St James, Hanover, Trelawny and Westmoreland.

According to the labour ministry’s Barrington Bailey, the last batch of new farm workers were picked in 1998 and since then there has not been any great demand for workers on US farms.

“For the last five or so years we have not had a selection because of a reduction in demand for new workers on the United States farms,” he explained.

The fall-off in demand, he explained had stemmed from:

. the replacement of cane cutters with machinery;

. the reduction in tobacco cultivation as the anti-smoking sentiment increased; and

. a reduction in the demand for American-grown apples after Asian countries, especially China, flooded the US market with the fruit.

In contrast, new Jamaican workers were being trained for the Canadian leg of the farm work programme every year, even though about 95 per cent of those who made it into the programme were retained.

But over the last few years the farm work programme, once a popular way of earning a living while experiencing life in the US and Canada, has become tainted by drug smuggling and the large number of those who have absconded.

In February, the programme was rocked by scandal after three Rock River, Clarendon men were caught attempting to smuggle drugs into Canada. Labour Minister Horace Dalley, who had initially banned all Rock River workers from the programme for the next three years, later softened his stance.

In the wake of the drug smuggling and earlier warnings that the programme was being jeopardised by the large number of workers who had “run off”, the labour ministry outlined stringent new measures for the programme in February.

These include ensuring that all flights with farm workers onboard are screened before leaving the island, and tighter surveillance at the farm work holding centre along East Street in Kingston to include sniffer dogs. There were also plans to tighten-up the screening process to weed out applicants who had no experience in farm work and saw the programme as a way to get to North America.

We are looking for “persons who are engaged in farming,” Bailey said yesterday. “People who know about farming, who know exactly what is to be done when reaping crops, who are willing to work long hours in various weather conditions. America has different climatic conditions – sometimes it’s very hot and sometimes very cold – some workers are there right through.”

The 1,000 successful applicants, he said, would come from across the island, and no one area would be given preference.

The selection process will next move to Manchester where residents of St Elizabeth and Clarendon will have a chance to apply. The last batch of applicants will be taken from Kingston on Saturday and will include persons from the Corporate Area, St Catherine and St Thomas.

Bailey said about 60 per cent of the 300 applicants interviewed in St Ann on Monday and the 250 processed in Montego Bay yesterday had been successful.