Re-think on farm training sought

Press, 20 March 1982, Page 2

Re-think on farm training sought

PA Dunedin Otago fanning leaders, stung by the Government’s move to slash the budget for the Agricultural Training Council, are lobbying energetically to try to persuade the Cabinet to reconsider on Monday. The immediate past chairman of the Agricultural Training Council, Mr Ken Reid, of Outram, yesterday urged the Government not to act hastily over its decision to slash the council’s budget. Mr Reid said he hoped Cabinet could be persuaded to reconsider on Monday. He said there were obvious dividends to be gained from investing in the provision of skills for the major export earner. He said the Government contribution last year for the Agricultural Training Council was $600,000.

Part of this, for running the central organisation in Wellington, came from the Education vote and the

farmers put up 10 per cent of the administration costs in cash. But the bulk of the money for the employment of the regional agricultural training Officers, about $460,000, came from the agricultural vote. However, he said the farmers’ contributions were far greater than the cash amount paid towards administration, as significant time and support was put into the scheme by farming organisations throughout the country - with a value that had been assessed at more than ?1 million. He said Federated Farmers was prepared to put up further cash contributions to add to its contribution in kind, but this was not acceptable to the Government. A delegation this week had been told that the smallest amount acceptable to the Government would be half of the cash input, which would have meant $300,000 for the last year.