Some progress made at cost

Press, 9 June 1978, Page 15

Some progress made at cost

Agricultural scientists have tended to give too little consideration to the social consequences of their research activities, according to Dr A. T. Johns, chairman of the University Grants Committee. “A variety of social problems have followed directly in the wake of agricultural progress, achieved through research efforts. “Many of these have until now been swept under the mat, but they are problems that need to be given higher priority for investigation and planning in the future.” Dr Johns, who recehtly retired as Director-General of Agriculture and Fisheries, was speaking to the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science, in Melbourne.

“We need to consider whether we spur a conservative industry to advance more rapidly by competing with it or by providing it with the scientific tools of progress, or both. “The enthusiasm of the scientist needs to be tempered by the judgment of the experienced farmer.” Hop growing and poultry farming were examples of industries where increased productivity, through scientific developments and a restricted market, had meant fewer and bigger farmers. “Those going to the wall need help to re-establish in other activities, following their very considerable loss of capital and income. This can constitute a very real social problem.” A multitude of new products has been developed for sophisticated markets as a result of research and development in the dairy

industry. In order to make the most profitable use of these in association with changing market demands, there had been an amalgamation of small, specialised dairy factories into a few large, multiproduct, mechanised units. “This has meant not only a virtual abandonment of some small rural communities and the building up of others, but also requirements for new skills in the workforce.” The social problems that needed to be faced involved the loss of employment in some areas and the recruitment of more technically oriented personnel in others, said Dr Johns. “The major deficiencies of the dairy industry are not in research or capital investment, but in the transfer of the required technology from the laboratory to the factory floor, and its efficient management.”