WORK OF RESEARCH UNIT AT LINCOLN

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29894, 7 August 1962, Page 18

WORK OF RESEARCH UNIT AT LINCOLN

The funds which the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research is providing for the establishment of a research unit in agricultural economics at Lincoln College would be for staff . and travelling expenses, said I Professor B. P. Philpott, who will supervise the unit. The college would provide acI commodation and facilities for research and also the supervision of the unit. '. The initial grant, would be £5OOO a year, he said, but i this was likely to be in- : creased later. : A problem in the establishi ment of the unit would be to i obtain qualified agricultural economists to staff it. The ■ initial grant was unlikely to i provide for more than two ■ senior research officers or ’ one senior research officer ’ and two junior officers, to--1 gether with technicians. The ’ sort of people required would : be those with training tn economics. These people had 1 a combination of training in ' economics, mathematics and ’ statistics. Universities had begun to produce people with ! this sort of training in only recent years and they were in short supply all over the world, said Professor Philpott. Referring to the type of work that would be undertaken by the unit. Professor Philpott said that there was already in progress a project . that would come within the i scope of the unit It was a i study being undertaken by . Dr. J T Ward, a senior lecturer in the agricultural > economics department, into . use of land for agriculture . as compared with forestry . This was in the field of optimum land use One of the first subjects ; for study would be the place of agriculture in the

■ economy, said Professor PhilI pott. This required an intensification of investigations already under way to de- ■ termine whether the nation could best use capital and labour in agriculture com- , pared with other avenues of production, such as import- ‘ saving industries. • There was also the ques- ■ tion of the best potential . overseas markets for New . Zealand produce, and what , had to be done to exploit these by economic arrangements. As well as matters of a more national character. Professor Philpott said that the unit would also be con- , cerned with farm management. A great deal of atten--1 tion would be directed to the i use of modern mathematical i programming techniques in ■ the solution of economic and • farm management problems This would be aimed at for- ‘ mulating the most desirable production plans for farmers under various conditions. Already the Department of Scientific and Industrial Re- • search is providing £5OO a 1 year for three years for two other projects in the department. One of these is on factors affecting lamb prices ' and the other involves the measurement of differences r in resource productivity on a sample of 250 sheep farms These projects will be expanded ’ A major project on factors determining wool prices is being financed by the Wool ‘ Research Organisation. Professor Philpott said that the [ new unit would concentrate rather more on meat and ' dairy products in the marketing field. It is hoped that the unit will work in fairly closely i with the New Zealand Insti- > tute of Economic Research to ' avoid overlapping.