Farmworkers drive agricultural innovation in Pasco, Mexico

Eleven farmworkers from Washington state and Mexico were honored recently for their ideas to improve the apple industry.

They responded to the challenge “Our Ideas Matter: Manzana 2024,” organized by Semillero de Ideas, a nonprofit that empowers farmworkers to drive agricultural innovation.

Workers showcased innovations in organic pesticides, safer ladders and harvesting equipment during simultaneous events in Pasco, Wash., and Jocotepec, Mexico. Their ideas were aimed at improving work-life balance, production and environmental sustainability in apple orchards.

It is the second year the contest has been held. In 2023, the focus was on the cherry industry.

Josefina Blanca Aguila Luciano, co-founder of the organization, said farmworkers are professionals and experts even if they don’t have diplomas.

“The workers are people with wisdom, with experience, and many times they don’t have a space or a place to take those ideas they have to improve their work,” Aguila Luciano said in Spanish.

That sentiment is what prompted Luis Alejandro Barrera to participate.

“We are rarely listened to, or rather. We are not encouraged to give our ideas or to improve them. Semilleros de Ideas is giving us that opportunity,” said Barrera in Spanish.

Barrera is a temporary farmworker from Mexico on an H-2A visa. He is also a double challenge winner. Last year, he won by improving the vest he wears to work in the field.

“The ones I made are more comfortable and more resistant. What I like the most about what I made is that it also gives us up to 20%, 15% improvement. It gives us more performance,” Barrera said.

This year, he and his wife, Dulce Anahi Cortez, presented a project to enhance ladder safety. Barrera said the idea arose after seeing field accidents. He said one of his coworkers recently broke his arm in three places after a fall and had to undergo surgery.

 “At the end of the day, it is in the company’s interest because if the worker is well, the company will do well,” Barrera said.

Democrat State Sen. Rebecca Saldaña, who attended the event, said farmworkers are improving safety and efficiency and helping to avoid unnecessary accidents that are common in the industry.

“When you give workers space to share their ideas, they know how to do their work better than anyone else,” said Saldaña. “I was so inspired by being able to come and see some of the ideas and talk with some of the inventors.”

The contest attracted over a hundred farmworkers from Oaxaca, Zempoala, Nayarit, and San Luis de Potosi in Mexico and from Wapato and Pasco in Washington state.

“This year, we got sponsored by Once Upon a Farm, a national company that does organic foods for children,” said Alexia Estrada, Semillero de Ideas communications and development manager. The organization donated $15,000, which was distributed among the winners.

The judges were people with expertise in the apple industry, including a farmworker, a growers representative, a researcher and a board member of the organization.

Caleb Gonzalez y Apolonio Barriga Reyes, from Oaxaca, won first place for a mechanism to pull the tarpaulin.  

Second place went to Benita Carmen Violeta Rivero Gutierrez, Federico David Munoz Rivero and Hugo Ivan Bernal Mares, from Zempoala. Their project focused on pollinating bees.   

Third place went to the Pasco team, formed by Patricia and Gabriel Oropeza, who created a prototype tool for apple harvesting.

Jesus Gutierrez Manuel, from Pasco, and Johnny Edhuu Trejo Mejia, from San Luis de Potosi, won fourth place. They worked on an integrated and culturally adapted training document. 

Barrera and his wife won fifth place for their project on improving ladder safety.

Semillero de Ideas will connect the top five winning teams with experts to improve their innovations further.