HIGH EFFICIENCY

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 68, 17 September 1936, Page 10

HIGH EFFICIENCY

FARMING PRACTICE

SCOPE FOR IMPROVEMENT

MINISTER'S REMARKS

"While the efficiency of our farming already is gratifyingly high, there remains scope for substantial progressive improvement, and the task of fostering that, improvement in the most economic manner is looked upon as the basic task of the Department of Agriculture," states the Minister .of Agriculture (the Hon. W. L. Martin) in a foreword to the annual report of the | Department, which was tabled in the I House of Representatives this afternoon. "The report continues the record of the extensive and varied operations of the Department in its work of furthering the efficiency and development of rural industries in fullest compatibility with the national welfare," states the Minister. "It shows that during the first part of the year under review the advisory, research, and regulatory activities have been carried out broadly in the manner and to the extent that have obtained in recent years, and these activities have been productive of quite satisfactory results in that our growing knowledge about the improvement of our farming and the results of research are being reflected in practice. However, it may be questioned whether these are being reflected in practice as completely and as rapidly as is both possible and desirable. This is a question which has been receiving considerable attention since I took office. "The work of the Department is now being organised on certain basic conceptions, the application of which, it is considered, will lead to more fruitful exploitation of both our current considerable store of knowledge and of future additions to it. It is realised firstly that complete co-operation and co-ordination within the Department itself is desitable. This arises because of the innate complexity of farming, taken in conjunction with the fact that the farm is the business unit in our rural industries,' and advisory work to be fully effective, must pay strict attention to this fact. While within the Department there must continue to be much specialised endeavour, the fruit of this endeavour must be welded into a complex but unified whole for use in advisory work. Cooperation of the type that is desirable within the Department is desirable also in respect to the relations of the Department with all organisations concerned in the proper advancement of farming, and this is especially true of those who are most directly concerned —i.e., the farmers themselves and their organisations. In short, cooperated effort is being made a keynote of the policy of the Department. A development that may be expected to follow naturally from the unified' thought and co-operative effort that are considered desirable in the work of the Department is a trend towards standardised practice, which, reflecting the best knowledge available, should lead Jo greater general efficiency, begetting both increased production and improved quality in our farm products. ESSENTIAL REGULATION. "From the foregoing it may be deduced that the Department's activity must be based increasingly on instruction instead of on regulation, or, in effect, essential regulation must represent the result of instruction. Hence, the departmental officers must function more and more as instructors rather than as inspectors. "It is realised that an important function of the Department is to keep the farming community fully and promptly acquainted not only with the final results of investigational work, but also with its progress and its trends that may have a bearing on farm practice and planning. "The prior incidental reference to the quality of our produce calls for further mention. In general, New Zealand farming has to face steadily-increasing competition from other agricultural countries upon our export markets. One of the most effective means of meeting this competition is improvement not only in the quality of our export products but in the quality of all those other farm-products upon which the quality of bur export products at times depends. There is scope also for improvement in the handling of our products. "An important phase of the agricultural position may be summed up thus: while the efficiency of our farming already is gratifyingly high, there remains scope for substantial progressive improvement, and the task of fostering that improvement in the most economical manner is looked upon as the basic task of the Department of Agriculture. "Two features of the year are worthy of special mention:—(l) There was a substantial increase, of 38,309 tons, in the deliveries of fertilisers by rail. In the light of departmental investigations and experience relative to the use of fertilisers, this trend augurs well for future farm production. (2) There was a substantial increase in the killings of pigs for export. At the close of the production year ended September the increase in comparison with the previous year promises to approximate 12,000 carcasses. Further profitable expansion of pig production is clearly in sight, and ihe Department is planning to foster such profitable expansion to the fullest extent."