LANSING, Mich. — State officials are trying this year to make sure there are enough workers to fill the employments needs of the state’s farmers. The state’s Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD) are putting the word out that it has tools to help farmers find workers to harvest their crops.

Last year, not enough workers during the asparagus harvest, in particular, turned out to be a problem, according to Belen Ledezma, director of Migrant, Immigrant and Seasonal Worker Services, a division within the WDA.

“It was the beginning of last year our asparagus growers didn’t have enough workers,” Ledezma said. “We weren’t able to fill all of our orders. Also, last year our migrant workers were a little bit late. We didn’t see migrant workers last year until June. That’s not usually the case for us. We don’t want to be in a situation where we can’t fill orders.”

Asparagus growers begin to need workers as early as March, Ledezma said. She said Michigan has 38 hand-harvested crops, making it the second most diverse state in the nation for its variety, behind only California.

Despite the fact Michigan has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, state taxpayers continue to subsidize the recruitment of out-of-state labor for Michigan’s farmers in addition to subsidizing the inspections of employer-provided migrant housing.

A couple of years ago, then-Gov. Jennifer Granholm tried to get farmers to pay for their own migrant housing inspections as part of her proposed budget, but that provision was dropped. MDARD spends about $695,000 a year on its migrant labor program, according to Amy Epkey, a budget officer with the state.

Now both MDARD and WDA are promoting the Agricultural Recruitment System (ARS). Through ARS, state employment specialists help locate workers and point them in the direction of agricultural employers.

Ledezma said farmer employers try to find local labor and her office does, in fact, recruit workers mostly from within the state.

“During the season, farmers often share local labor,” she said. “A lot of times they’re not migrant workers. They’re people who live here. The employers we work with, they bust themselves trying to find workers.”

She also said employers often complain about ag workers who don’t stick with the job. Another issue that comes up is the legal status of migrant workers. “It’s always going to be a question that is raised,” Ledezma said. “There’s not a lot of research on the legal status of workers other than the Pew Hispanic Center.”

More than anything, perhaps, she sympathizes with the challenges of being a migrant worker, since she used to be one herself. Although she was born in Fremont, Mich., when she was a child Ledezma followed her parents to Mexico to work starting in December of each year, then returned to Michigan to work in farm fields beginning in April.

“When you’re a child, you don’t know any different,” she said. “When you’re the only one in school speaking a foreign language, you do see some of the discrimination. You have to be made of sterner stuff.

“These are not low-skilled jobs. I’m a big fan of the Michigan ag industry. I talk about the ag industry with a lot of passion.”