Uncertainty in farming

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33932, 27 August 1975, Page 17

Uncertainty in farming

I from Our Ou-n Reporter) WELLINGTON. Agricultural output had been almost static, livestock numbers had moved only marginally, stock performance gave little cause for complacency and the whole farming environment was pervaded with an air of uncertainty, said the president of the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural Science (Mr W. J. Burns).

He was opening the institute’s agricultural science convention in Wellington. “How can this situation be consistent with the vigorous applications of proven scientific " principles?” he asked. “On the surface, there appears to be a real conflict here.’.’ It was the role of the agricultural scientist to provide the technology to meet the demand at any given time, but where the demand for knowledge was created by a short-term situation, such a response was unsatisfying.

Two situations existed which were scarcely com-

patible. On the one hand, 1 there was the scientific capacity to expand agricultural output, while there was also | a singular lack of motivation 1 on the part of the producer J to pick up and apply the ’ available technology. “As a short-term ex-! 1 pedient, it could be sug-’ 1 gested that a programme ofi; retrenchment could be justi-p fied and that research input! ’ into agriculture be reduced 1 until the technology already ! available is applied to a ! greater extent," said Mr I Burns. 1 “In today’s economic envi- ■ ronment, the lack of motiva- 1 tion or the diminished financial ability of the farmer to | undertake expansion would ensure that such a decision 1 would lead to the self- 1 destruction or extermination : of agricultural research. As i a consequence would follow . the debilitation of the farm- J ing industry and the sub- 1 sequent erosion of the well- ! being of the nation as a whole. , “Rather, a more positive approach would be to take advantage of this temporary 1 hiatus and reappraise our ; agricultural potential,” he i said.