INTERIM USE OF D.D.T. MIXES

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30366, 15 February 1964, Page 6

INTERIM USE OF D.D.T. MIXES

FARMERS and Others who have been studying the implications of the new Agricultural Chemicals (Insecticides) Regluations, 1964, have been at a loss -to understand why, under the interim arrangements for use of existing forms of D.D.T, or D.D.T. dust mixes farmers should be divided into two groups subject to different treatment. Farmers who" bought these formulations before January 31 are permitted to use them until June 30 as they have done- in the past subject to the 1961 regulations, but farmers who wish to acquire the same materials for use between now and the end of June have to obtain a permit for purchase of the materials and apply them subject to the new regulations which prohibit the use of the aeroplane, the rotary spinner topdressing machine, and air blast sprayers for application of these dusts. Discussing these provisions of the regulations this week,

the Director-General of Agriculture, Mr D. N. R. Webb, said that farmers.had themselves urged that an interim period should be allowed in which they could use stocks of materials held in their sheds, and this had also been made, necessary by bad weather, particularly in the North Island, holding up application of these materials before the new. regulations came into force.

Mr Webb said that with manufacturers cutting down their production of D.D.T. mixes before the new regulations came into force, he did not imagine that holdings of these materials on farms would be large. Asked why all farmers had not been permitted to use D.D.T. mixes under the old regulations until the end of June, Mr Webb said that a start had to be made to apply the new regulations, and if the suggested procedure had been followed the same problem of supplies held on farms would have arisen again.