Case put for increase in farming research

Press, 8 May 1978, Page 3

Case put for increase in farming research

The big advances of the past in agricultural production would be harder to get in the future but this did not mean that the agricultural research effort in the country should be reduced it might even be necessary to considerably expand it, the former director of the research division- of the Ministry of Agriculture, Dr L. R. Wallace, said at the weekend. There had been little increase in sheep and dairy cattle numbers in the last 10 years, Dr Wallace told the Lincoln College centennial symposium on Saturday.

Some influential people were questioning the amount of money being spent on agricultural research through the Ministry of Agriculture and Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

They were saying that a large amount was being spent each year but in the . last 10 years it had not been reflected in increased production. It was suggested that : something might be wrong with the direction of research or the advisory services and that the solution might not lie in making more money available. Dr Wallace said he did not think that New Zealand i had remotely approached the levels of production possible. A Ministry of Agriculture survey made about a year

ago established that an increase in production of about 50 per cent could be quite readily attained. Economic conditions had a great influence on the rate at which technological advances were adapted. In this

respect the country was in something of a crisis situation. The economic climate in the last 10 years had not been conducive to encouraging the adoption of available technology. But the advances in the future would not be obtained quite so easily as in the past. Future advances were likely to be smaller and in other fields.

However, agricultural research should not be reduced and it might be necessary to considerably expand it. More understanding was needed of genetics. In the dairy industry about 30,000 cows a year died of bloat. It was known that the susceptibility of an animal to bloat was determined genetically. It had also been found recently that resistance to facial eczema had a genetic base.