FARM AND RESEARCH

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 126, 30 May 1928, Page 4

FARM AND RESEARCH

[ EMPIRE WIDE SCHEME A UNIFIED SERVICE (From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 21st 'March; A scheme for the creation of a Colonial Agricultural Scientific and Research Service, available • for ', the' requirements- of the whole Colonial Empire, is outlined in a White Paper. ■ ■ . It is the, report of a committee, of which Lord Lovatt was chairman, appointed by the Secretary for the Colonies to formulate practical proposals for submission to the colonial Governments, to give effect; to a resolution passed at the ■ Colonial Office Conference. ■' ■ The committee recommend the institution of a joint council and two committees, to deal with questions affecting agriculture and animal health respectively, to wit at the Imperial Institute. Their' staff should be accommodated there, and a room should be available "in the "Colonial Oftce for the agricultural advisers. ■ :' ■ Hie chief adviser, it is suggested, should be a distinguished man of science, of proved^ administration and organising ability, lo secure a man of the necessary calibre a salary of £2500. should be qffered, with £2000 fojf' an assistant Close relationship is rficomemnded be-v tweeu the authorities at Home and the officers serving in the colonial Empire. Close touch should be maintained between the Central Research Station'and.the ordinary agricultural activates of.the colony or group of colonies in which it is situated. ''..'... . : . . ■ MATER OF FINANCE. It is proposed that.the service should be, divided into two wings—Specialist (Research) and Agricultural (Administrative). Both should have common scales of salary, graded by classes. The. committee contemplate that the wings should normally be independent of each other for purposes of promotion, but officers would be transferred from one to the other. The estimated cost of the scheme is £58,000 for the agricultural wing and £35,000 for the specialist wing. To this has to be added £14,000 for an Advisory Council and £20~000 for one central research station, making a grand total of £127,000. The Empire Marketing Board have expressed their willingness to give substantial assistance towards the cost of both the ■ proposed Advisory "Council and the Agricultural Service, and the various colonies are also to be invited to contribute according to their respective revenues. LARGE ISSUES AT STAKE. Summing up their reasons for . the scheme they put forward, the committee state:— , ....-.".... The welfare and progress of agriculture is to-day the most vital concern of almost every colonial Administration. The prosperity of the people, the trade, and, not least, the revenue of each colony, is mainly dependent upon its agricultural production. Agriculture, in fact, may be said to be the main industry of the colonial Empire, and. on the efficiency of agriculture depends, therefore, not only the food supply of the population, but, indeed, all economic and social progress. Science does not stand still, and the country which lags behind in the application of the latest scientific knowledge to the practice of agriculture must suffer a loss which cannot be estimated. The failure to provide for efficient and up-to-date agricultural research may mean not merely serious annual losses on crops, but indeed the loss of a whole industry to a country or group of countries; on the other hand, the provision of Bueh research may mean the gain to a country of a new industry, or at any rate the retention of an industry which would otherwise be lost. Such are the large issues at stake.