The race to raise an army of farm helpers

SIR – A couple of weeks ago the Government called on volunteers to help the NHS, and everyone has been overwhelmed by the response.

The Government now needs to put out another call for volunteers to help the farmers. Within a few weeks an army will be needed to help pick and dig out produce.

There are many unemployed people, students and others who could do with the money and would like to help the national effort. Some may only be capable of working half days. This effort needs overall coordination in order to put the right numbers of people on the farms when they are required. Perhaps, to encourage volunteering, workers who get paid should see no change to their benefit claims. Joyce Hale

Henley-on-thames, Oxfordshire

SIR – My husband has a medical problem and we are both over 70, so we cannot help with agricultural duties. But if we were younger, how would we get in touch with local farmers and growers? Have the National Farmers’ Union and trade associations got a strategy?

Ann Roberts

Harrogate, North Yorkshire

SIR – In the years following the Second World War, agricultural labour was in short supply.

Schools sent pupils to “harvest camps”. There they were sent to farms as required. I went in 1949, aged 13. We slept in what I now realise were barrack blocks.

I don’t remember getting paid, but I learnt to drive a tractor, met my first girlfriend, drank my first bottle of beer and got a tetanus injection from the local vet after I stuck my foot with a pitchfork. Happy days!

Patrick Hollies

Charter Alley, Hampshire