Farm safety program adds workers, counties - Restoration NewsMedia (2024)

The N.C. Cooperative Extension office in Wilson County will be the home base for an expanded Farmworker Health and Safety Education program that’s brought two additional educators on board to serve eight rural counties.

Roberto Rosales, who until December was the farmworker health and safety program educator serving Wilson, Nash and Edgecombe counties, has expanded that area of responsibility to include Bladen, Duplin, Sampson,Wayne and Johnston counties.

Rosales took on the title of coordinator and will be the lead educator over two COVID-19 ag educators.

“The program that we usually do on pesticide safety, heat stress and green tobacco illness will now include COVID-19,” Rosales said.

EXPERIENCE WITH PROGRAM

Javier Rivera and Olivia Antonio were brought on as COVID-19 ag educators in December.

“I think it is imperative that we do the work that we are doing,” Rivera said. “We are excited that N.C. State University took a template from something that was already being used to provide this necessary pesticide and heat stress training to kind of extend to that community the importance of COVID. It facilitates the growers and the workers kind of communicating better.”

Rivera, a University of North Carolina at Pembroke graduate, was born in Puerto Rico and has lived in North Carolina for some time.

“I have some previous experience working as one of the ag educators with Roberto from 2018 through 2020,” Rivera said. “I am familiar with what the program was doing before, and I am excited about what it is doing now.”

Like Rosales, Antonio has experience as a temporary agricultural worker.

“When I was younger, we went from state to state,” Antonio said. “I was raised in doing farm work, so I am familiar with doing tobacco, cucumbers, et cetera.”

Antonio, a Fayetteville State University graduate, said she’s excited to learn new things.

“I think being as a worker, one of them, I have learned a lot and learning more about the crops and everything,” Antonio said. “Now that I am working as a COVID ag (educator), I want to help them and educate them in areas that they may need help.”

GROWING NUMBERS

Rosales said North Carolina has between 70,000 and 80,000 seasonal farmworkers.

This number includes migrant workers, seasonal farmworkers and temporary agricultural workers on U.S. Department of Labor H-2A visas.

The number of migrant workers has decreased while the number of H-2A workers has been increasing, according to N.C. Department of Commerce statistics.

Rosales said the eight counties where his educators are working have the largest populations of migrants, temporary farmworkers and H-2A workers in the state.

Michael Barnes, a field supervisor for Scott Farms in Lucama, said the farm has about 46 local workers who stay all year and a couple hundred temporary workers.

Barnes said Rosales and the program have been a big help.

“There’s a lot of training that has to be done to make sure the workers are safe in the field, and he trains us, the supervisors, as to what to look for in case some of the employees may be getting too hot or might be in some stress,” Barnes said.

“With the rules and regulations the way they are, it would be really hard for us to do it without this program. It’s just so much that they require. It’s good stuff. It needs to be done. It is a lot of stuff that has just been put on in the last 10 years. He transitions us real easy into doing what we need to do to keep the guys safe. Scott Farms, I will give them a pat on the back on that. Safety is No. 1. He wants us to get the job done, but he wants us to be safe first. That’s what he always tells us.”

FOCUS ON COVID-19

Rosales said the new educators have been getting up to date with COVID-19 as positive cases skyrocket in the state and in the country.

“Now we have just gotten started on the training on the vaccine information, the information on testing,” Rosales said.

On Wednesday, the three educators will hand out personal protective equipment for farmworkers from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Wilson County Agricultural Center, 1806 SW Goldsboro St.

Rosales said the effort to hire more educators springs from a partnership between the N.C. Farmworker Health Project Office of Rural Health, N.C. Cooperative Extension and the N.C. Agromedicine Institute.

“When they approached us about this opportunity, this is something that we needed. We needed some assistance with getting the message out to the community as the vaccine was going to come out,” Rosales said. “They reached out to extension to provide some type of resource to the ag community. After brainstorming, this is what came out. A lot of what we did last year as a program has all been with the community partners. From all that need from last year, the message got up to get the funding to support this.”

Rosales said many people have provided testing, supplies and education since the pandemic began.

“So this kind of supports all of that,” Rosales said.

Norman Harrell, director of the N.C. Cooperative Extension office in Wilson County, said he’s excited that Rosales was able to move into the farmworker health and safety education program’s coordinator role.

“With his leadership, this program will continue to serve farmers by providing training to help keep workers safe,” Harrell said. “His group has also been able to bring additional resources to help with the COVID-19 pandemic. We look forward to this team working with Wilson and other county growers.”

To reach Roberto Rosales, email rmrosale@ncsu.edu or call 252-883-5721.

To reach Javier Rivera, email cesar_rivera@ncsu.edu.

To reach Olivia Antonio, email her at oantoni@ncsu.edu

Wilson County residents can call the Cooperative Extension’s Wilson office at 252-237-0111.

Johnston County residents seeking personal protective equipment can call the Cooperative Extension office there at 919-989-5380.

In Nash County, those seeking PPE can call the local extension office at 252-459-9810.