Parties not short on farming ideas

Press, 20 November 1981, Page 13

Parties not short on farming ideas

By

DOUG FYFE

be a replacement for the successful land development encouragement loan scheme. National also regards horticulture as one of the more important elements of its growth strategy and would provide the finance and organisation for development in this area, which it predicts could result in export earnings of as much as $7OO million by 1990 compared with just under $2OO million last year. One of the most important planks of Labour’s policy for farming is that it wants to see more new and young farmers getting a start on the land. To that end, through the Lands and Survey Department, it would buy more land for development and settlement and also speed up the develop-

ment of land already held for settlement. As a further step in that direction it is proposing to introduce legislation to effectively stop undue amalgamation and aggregation of land. . Social Credit similarly wants to close loopholes in legislation that allows purchase of land for company farming or by non-farming interests, and it would provide up to the full value of a property by way of a loan at a low rate of interest to a suitable person drawing land by ballot for settlement. Land would also be bought by a Labour Government for subdivision and settlement as export-oriented horticultural units. Labour is proud that in the period of the last Labour Government the highly re-

garded Rural Banking and Finance Corporation came into existence and it now has plans to expand its functions and role, sb that it would provide a' full banking- service and a complete range of financial and advisory .services. - In the area of subsidies and support for farming, Labour looks as though it would follow a more selective course rather than an across-the-board approach. Existing fertiliser and lime subsidies would be broadly maintained, but. would be linked to soil tests, and any extensions of these subsidies would be directed to farms ano areas of greatest need

and associated with approved farm development schemes. It is still very interested in adding value to primary produce through further processing and in the concept of a production incentive tax to reward the producer or farmer for more production. Social Credit, incidentally, has a positive proposition to exclude from income tax any increase in production over the average of the previous three years, as estimated on a cash value basis, and it would free from death duties the economic family farming unit. In the interests of strengthening rural com-

munities Labour has a number of proposals, including support of mobile pre-school units, where possible the reopening of country schools that have been closed down and making some payment to parents who have to help their children learn by correspondence. It also has plans for support of irrigation development, not only in community schemes but also through help for the individual outside these schemes. . While farmers may have some difficulties plumbing the depths of some aspects of Social Credit policy, it contains some novel aspects. Its Land Development Corporation. which would be responsible for development of Crown land for farming, would also seek to even out

the fluctuations in numbers of certain categories of stock that has occurred in the past. Thus when beef prices are depressed and farmers tend to reduce their breeding. herds, the corporation would seek to increase its breeding cattle numbers to meet the demand for more cattle when markets turn up again. The corporation would also operate a scheme under which Crown land would be leased to farm workers to enable them to gain experience and capital for the possible purchase of the land on which they have been farming. Social Credit also likes the idea of farm improvement clubs. In the area of fertilisers, it plans to foster the development of local resources of

phosphate rock and sulphur, promote research into the use of more concentrated fertilisers to reduce transport and application costs, and to look more closely at the role’of trace elements in soil fertility and the re-use of organic materials that are otherwise wasted by shortcut disposal techniques. An urgent research programme is also envisaged aimed at the more careful use of harmful pesticides and their replacement by biological control methods, by which insects control insects, wherever possible. Social Credit also wants to see cropping for energy production with the processing plants co-operatively owned by. growers and workers, and it plans to encourage development of bee-keeping

with low interest loans and to grant licences for pheasant and grouse farming. It has also plans for incentives to spread the length of the killing season at freezing works beyond the present time span. The party would also make it possible for producer boards to buy in products or produce surplus to market requirements with finance provided at special rates of interest, and it also has plans for long-term storage to take care of such surpluses to obviate New Zealand being a weak seller on export markets in periods of low demand for some products. The parties are certainly not short on ideas for farming and horticulture. These are only a few of them.