Agricultural Experiments On Production Of Islands

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28321, 5 July 1957, Page 13

Agricultural Experiments On Production Of Islands

"The Press" Special Service

AUCKLAND, July 4. An experiment of the Department of Agriculture of which little is heard has been quietly proceeding at Rukuhia Soil Research Station, Hamilton, for the last five years. This is the tropical section of the department under the control of Mr J. C. Gerlach, M.Agr.Sc„ an agronomist who has specialised in tropical agriculture and horticulture and who has had wide experience in the Indonesian and Malayan areas and in the Pacific Islands.

Mr Gerlach is convinced that “if we take it slowly” New Zealand and the Islands will in future years benefit greatly from island trade. The island territories of New Zealand are Mr Gerlach’s special charges. Originally, it was intended he should spend six months of each year in an advisory capacity in the Islands, but pressure of work in New Zealand has kept him in this country for much longer periods. Major Problem The department’s work with the Islanders is psychological as well as agriculturally instructive. One of the major problems is trying to convince people used to primitive ways of cultivation that advanced methods may be more productive. “The population of the Island territories at the present rate of increase will be doubled within 20 yea s,” said Mr Gerlach in an interview. “If this increased population is to be fed and if the quantity and quality of exportable produce is to be increased so that the people can enjoy a higher standard of living, the limited acreage of land available must be made vastly more productive.” One of the soltrtions to this problem, it is believed, is Mr Ger-

lach’s scheme for the establishment of an gricultural institution at high school level in Samoa. This scheme has been fully discussed by the Island Territories, Education and Agricultural Departments and is well under way. Boarding School

It is intended to establish a boarding school initially for an intake of between 20 and 30 students each year. They will take a twoyear course in tropical agriculture and horticulture, at the completion of which they will go out among their own people as field officers of the Department of Agriculture, as agricultural leaders in the community or as plantation overseers.

Staffing the school presents a major difficulty. Whereas there are many young men in New Zealand willing to study tropical agriculture, there are few trained men available to teach at the school.

Apart from outlining development plans for the Islands, the tropical section makes a special study of food and export crops with the aim of making the territories economically self-support-ing. Crops under gtudy include copra, cacao, coffee, nutmeg, kapoi, tomatoes, kumaras and oranges.

In 1952 Miss P. Bates, a member of the staff of Rukuhia, spent a year at Samoa making a study of the propagation of a special type of fungi-resistant cacao tree. The results of her experiments were most profitable. Field parties, sent from New Zealand, have been working ip the Samoan, Niue and Cook Islands during the past five years on soil surveys and aerial mapping, while experts in the veterinarian, entomological and citrus cultural fields have been sent to carry out special investigations. Since the tropical division was established the services of scientists in New Zealand research stations have been available to the section, thus giving the Islands the benefit of research knowledge which their sea it financial resources could not otherwise afford.