LINCOLN RESEARCH DIARY

Press, 4 March 1983, Page 25

LINCOLN RESEARCH DIARY

Lush lentils Some 100 hectares of lentils were grown. commercially in the Ashburton County this season. It was the first attempt to go commercial with something which has been a piece of “long shot" research by Crop Research Division, D.S.I.R, over the last 10 years.

With yields on all 17 properties being over 2.5 tonnes per hectare the “trial" has been an outstanding success. Several farmers got over 3.5 tonnes per hectare which looks like something of a world record yield from the literature currently available. Much of the credit for the success of this trial goes not only to Dr Bill Jermyn who pioneered the work but also to Mr Brian Davidson, an Ashburton stock firm representative who carefully chose suitable paddocks for the crops and assisted farmers with their crop management. If the markets can be developed for the product the crop could assume a veryuseful place in the Canterbury cropping scene. The lentil is a short legume crop usually grown in the cooler arid areas of India and the Middle East. It requires no fertiliser, no irrigation and

no disease or pest control. The principal requirement is for successful weed control as the plant is small and grows very slowly. Current prices for the crop look attractive at $6OO a tonne and if yields and prices hold, the return would compare with a 7 tonne (100 bus.) wheat crop. As we are finding with our new horticultural crops, success or failure will depend on successful marketing. Goodbye spuds The recent report on potato quality from the “Consumer" magazine is essentially highly critical of growers, wholesalers and retailers for the low’ quality of potatoes it found on the Wellington market. The principal cause of the poor quality was the amount of dry rot, wet rot, black spot, potato moth damage and greening. All these factors can be controlled by growers and merchants.

The report in any respects only confirms the complaints one frequently hears from consumers. But there is a sector of the industry which, supported by bn-going research work, is steadily improving the quality of potatoes reaching New Zealand households.

As the major potato breeder in New Zealand. Crop Research Division has for many years been involved in several aspects of potato quality research. The pathogen testing scheme which clears all potato seed stocks of virus, fungal and bacterial diseases will have a major effect on the appearance of potatoes as it comes into commerce over the next few years. Cooking and tasting tests have been a standard part of the breeding programme for many years and damage testing is now routinely carried out on all breeding material to ensure that any new cultivars will "travel well." Also new cultivars. such as Tekau, which has just been released, produce a large number of more evenly sized tubers.

If the consumer report jolts those in the industry who ignore the quality factor towards meeting the demand of the market of the 1980 s, it will have served a very’ useful purpose. If the warning signs are ignored it will surely lead to further declines in consumption as New Zealanders move towards more pasta, rice and bread as sources of carbohydrate. Howard Bezar