Farming loses students

Press, 25 January 1979, Page 18

Farming loses students

PA Auckland The popular belief that New Zealand agriculture was in the doldrums had placed the industry in an evertightening straightjacket, an agriculture expert says. A leading speaker at the agriculture and forestry section of the A.N.Z.A.A.S. Congress, Mr J. Kneebone, said the belief meant that farming was losing many prospective experts in scientific and econ-

omic fields to other professions.

A former president of Federated Farmers, Mr Kneebone said agriculture was now viewed as a backwater by bright students who had been expected to form its technol- - base. Farming was no longer able to compete for the best students with such professions as law, computer science, or aviation.

Mr Kneebone said he foresaw New Zealand would have

to develop much stronger ties with Australia, partly because of the stagnation of New Zealand’s agriculture. He excluded political amalgamation as a possibility, at least in the foreseeable future, but said closer liaison in many areas was inevitable. Mr Kneebone said he believed agriculture was under pressure on several fronts which would preclude anv big expansion of production from New Zealand farms.