New Zealand helping Chinese with farming

Press, 10 June 1980, Page 5

New Zealand helping Chinese with farming

New Zealand agricultural experts . have' begun to work with China to develop the livestock industry in a large area of underused native grassland. A model or demonstration farm is being established on 1200 hectares in Guangxi province in southern China. A detailed contract for the project was signed by a Chinese delegation when it was in New Zealand earlier in the year. It was signed with China New Zealand Agricultural Consultants. Ltd. a consortium of three New Zealand international agricultural consultancy companies which have agreed to work together in China.

The consortiums chairman is Mr Mark O’Connor, of Ashworth, Morrison and Cooper. It includes among its directors acting in an advisory capacity the Director-General of Agriculture (Mr M. L. Cameron), and the principal of Lincoln College (Professor J. D. Stewart), who has

visited China twice and been involved in the exploratory phases leading up to the project becoming a reality. A manager and his wife and an assistant manager are now at the site of the farm. The manager is a former Massey graduate with considerable experience as a farm manager and with long experience of tropical agriculture, which is important because the demonstration farm is in a part of China with a sub-tropical climate. A sub-tropical type of pasture technology will be required in the development of the hill country grasslands. The two men will work with the Chinese through a joint management committee in handling the enterprise. Professor Stewart said at the week-end that they had been impressed with the eagerness of the Chinese to get the project off the ground and their co-op-ation. He referred to the < considerable expedition j with which the Chinese : had built accommodation , for the New Zealanders j going to work on the farm, i But, he said it would : be essential for the New Zealand group to measure : up on performance as the ; Chinese were very stringent about standards and meeting targets. It would be necessary, however to make the Chinese aware that because of

things could go wrong with pasture-establishment programme. The whole of the area has to be sown to pasture in two years, about 400 ha in tlte first year and about 800 ha in the second. Because little was known about things such as fertiliser requirements and the inoculation of legumes on the type of country, there was an '‘abnormally high level of uncertainty” about the exercise, he said. As it is a sub-tropical area, seeds will come from Australia but through New Zealand commercial agencies. While Professor Stewart said he favoured , use of labour-intensive methods for sowing because of the plentiful supply of labour, overdrilling or direct drilling into the soil and oversowing from the air. as well as conventional cultivation methods, would be used on the farm. The farm will be developed for beef cattle production. Professor Stewart said that initially at least the programme would mean improving local cattle by crossbreeding, but he did see a possibility for using cattle such as the Sahiwal Friesian-cross, bred in the North Island for use in tropical climates, which had impressed him when he had seen them recently in Malasia. Of great interest to New Zealand is news that a group from the New

Zealand consultants’ including Mr O'Connor and a pasture expert, will return to China next month to look at the possibility of establishing a second demonstration farm in the northern part of China. It is expected to be a sheepfarming enterprise, where New Zealand's own pasture technology would be more applicable.

This, Professor Stewart said, could open up interesting possibilities for use of New Zealand seed, equipment, and possibly also stock. Already some New Zealand stock and seeds have gone to China. A Christchurch agricultural machinery manufacturer, P. and D. Duncan, Ltd. has also sent two of its triple disc direct drills to China for the demonstration farm in Guangxi province. Mr P. J. Clarke, sales manager of the firm, said that after agreeing to take one of the drills, which retail in New Zealand for $B5OO. the Chinese decided to take a second after a delegation, in February, visited Clayton station in South Canterbury' where the direct drilling technique has been extensively used.

There is also a ready market for the drill in Australia, where about. 60 to 70 are being sent annually, and the. number is expected to climb to more than 100 when a new model is introduced shortly. The drills have been used extensively in the Wyambeci Murrumbidgee irrigation area for direct introduction of rice and for drilling wheat into the burnt stubble after the harvesting of the rice to grow two crops in a year. About 50 of the drills have gone there annually for about four years. In competitions in the area, directdrilled crops have produced the highest-yielding crops of both rice and wheat.