Crop growers’ plight cause of concern

Press, 10 May 1979, Page 6

Crop growers’ plight cause of concern

Some cropping farmers were having to borrow to pay interest on money borrowed earlier after two bad seasons and without any direct assistance from the Government, Mr G. E. J. Hutton told the annual conference of the agriculture section of ‘Jorth Canterbury Federated Farmers.

He said that they had equity but not earnings.

The chairman of the section (Mr K. M. Wells) said this year’s harvest was a disaster for a great many of the section’s members. While pleased to see the announcement recently of the Under-Secretary of Agriculture (Mr R. L. G.) Talbot), that arrangements had been made for loans through the Rural Bank to cropping farmers affected by the poor harvest, Mr Wells said he was afraid that the people they were intended for might not be able to apply because they did not want to become further indebted.

He suggested that those in need of help would benefit if their existing borrowings could be refinanced under the terms of the new loan proposals. Referring to lack of direct Government support for cropping farmers, Mr Wells said that, in view of the saving of foreign exchange and a largely untapped export potential, it was strange, to say the least, that the Government had hot yet consciously recognised fully the importance of the

agricultural farmer to the economy.

Where many grain growers wished to reduce their cropping activities after recent difficulties, they were finding prices of store stock beyond their means, he said.

This followed industrial unrest in the freezing industry last season when many capital stock ewe lambs had been killed ahead of the waiting list of old ewes so that there was now a shortage of stock for breeding, thus lessening the options open to the grain grower. This was further aggravated by the competition created by those who were in the “Government’s numbers game”—the stock incentive scheme. Mr Wells said he was concerned about farmers on smaller holdings, whose production on a per acre per man basis was equal to the best in the country. Because these units had been at full production for many years in an effort to survive, they had not been able to expand or get the benefit of any incentives for increased production. The product prices had not kept up anywhere near the level of inflation and the servicing of many of these holdings was a severe burden on the farmers concerned.

Mr Wells also referred to problems faced by farmers who had invested in spray irrigation and who were now faced with a “savage” increase in electricity charges. They would have to look very seriously at the economics of the whole exercise and. unless they were given some relief or there was an increase in product prices, their future was in doubt.

On the recommendation of its Ellesmere branch, the conference decided to support an approach to the Government to guar-

antee a price for this season's “free” (grown outside a contract) barley at the same level at which it froze the price for this grain last year.

For the branch, Mr G. P. Rennie said that last year, at a time when growers stood to get a good price, the Government, in a free enterprise market had stepped in to freeze the price. But it had not put in a safety net at the bottom end when prices were low as at present.

Mr Wells said that feed grain prices had been frozen last year to help preserve the national flock caught in the drought, but as a result many grain growers had had their incomes significantly reduced.

The conference also supported a Sheffield remit urging that all wheat growers should be able to sell a part of their production soon after harvest. This was to ease pressure on farm storage and also give farmers some income. But a member of the Wheat Board (Mr G. E. Rennie) said that while there was a lot of merit in the concept, it was a question of how it could be worked.

If the remit was passed, he said, it should be taken up with merchants. To conserve energy, the Ellesmere branch proposed that the maximum permissible moisture content for all grains should be raised 1 per cent. While a remit on these lines was also approved, not all the delegates Favoured this course. Mr Wells was re-elected chairman of the section for a further term, and Mr F. A. Bull is again vicechairman. Mr Wells has been chairman for two years and he said that the coming year would be his last.