Change In Wheat Pattern Urged

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30678, 18 February 1965, Page 1

Change In Wheat Pattern Urged

(From Our Own Reporter)

AUCKLAND, February 17. There should be a greater immediate effort to increase Wheat acreage in Southland and South Otago, and a reduced emphasis on wheat in Canterbuiy, Dr. H. C. Smith, of the Crop Research Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research at Lincoln, said at the New Zealand Science Congress in Auckland today.

“Wheat suffers much less from disease in Southland and South Otago than in Canterbury,” he said. “There is a large area of flat land down south suitable for wheatgrowing. With bulkhandling facilities, transport would not need to be a problem.” In the long term, plantbreeding programmes should decrease the incidence of cereal diseases in other areas. Dr. Smith added. The best long-term prospects for dealing with crop diseases in general were, in fact, in plant breeding. Increased disease resistance would enable chemical controls to be progressively reduced.

He estimated the average loss of cereal crops through disease at 10 per cent in Southland and South Otago, 30 per cent in North Otago and Canterbury, 40 per cent in Marlborough and on the east coast of the North Island, and 50 per cent on the west coast of the North Island.

Potatoes suffered an average 10 per cent loss from disease in Southland and South Otago, 35 per cent in other east coast districts, and 45 per cent on the west coast of the North Island. The loss in brassicas was about 25 per cent everywhere except on the west coast of the North Island, where it was about 40 per cent