Potential of 10-acre blocks ‘considerable’

Press, 14 June 1978, Page 3

Potential of 10-acre blocks ‘considerable’

I PA Wellington The productive potential of “10-acre blocks” was considerable, the Associate Minister of Agriculture, (Mr Bolger) said in Rotorua yesterday. i There were now 27,000 small holdings in New Zealand ranging in size from one to 12 hectares and col-: lectively occupying about ■ 100,000 hectares, he said, in an address to the Vegetable and Produce Growers’ Federation conference. It meant there were now ' 9500 more small holdings than dairy farms in the : country. “There is obvious merit in . encouraging greater production from this significant area of farm land,” said Mr , Bolger. The scheme introduced in the Budget to provide ;finance for the development: of small rural holdings .would help in this respect, he said. i Mr Bolger said that hypothetically there was a combined carrying capacity of a million stock units on these small holdings. Wool worth an estimated SI2M, almost 2 per cent of total wool production, could therefore be produced on them. “This sounds an impressive amount of money, but it is small compared with the income that could be expected from more intensive

land use,” he said. “The productive potential of these small blocks is considerable, and the object is to encourage this in a manner that best suits each block.” The scheme announced ini the Budget was designed to | tap the potential of the ■ small holdings by making i : loans available to those ■ ‘ owners wanting to undertake i iworth-while productive; i development, particularly where there was an emphasis on export-orientated horticultural production. Horticultural exports last year reached SIOBM, and this i year were estimated to reach i$l25M, Mr Bolger said. Mr Bolger also spokel about research devel- ' opments, including the con-; cept of minimum tillage or cultivation. Increasing; awareness of the damage to i soil structure from intensive . ' cultivation had led to con- ! 'siderable interest in this. : “Research over a five-year . period has shown that crops such as sweet corn, broad beans, peas, dwarf beans, and cucurbits can be grown 11successfully in uncultivated: : i soil after the resident vege- ; i Station has been controlled :' by herbicides,” Mr Bolger i • said. H Minimum cultivation techniques held considerable ■ promise both for the pre- : servation of intensively 1 cropped land and the resto- ■ ration of areas already over- : i worked, he said.