FUTURE OF AGRICULTURE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25213, 30 April 1943, Page 5

FUTURE OF AGRICULTURE

CONTROLLED USE OF LAND Discussing the future of British agriculture at a meeting in Stafford, England, Dr C. Crowther, principal of the Harper Adams Agricultural College, predicted that in view of the necessity for continued governmental support of agriculture, one of the changes that must come after the war was the imposition of a measure of control on the use of the land. If a suitable way of doing it could be devised, no man would be allowed the use of land unless he could produce evidence to satisfy somebody authorised to control these things that he had some capacity for farming. Very considerable alterations in the layout of farms were necessary, if farmers were to make the best use of modern agricultural machinery. In attempting to bring about those changes they ran head-on into the complexities of the British land tenure system. It was bound to be a long and slow process, and he often wondered whether the simplest approach would be to make the State the sole purchaser of land. In due course the State would secure the unified ownership of the land, which would enable it to progress with schemes for improving and modernising the layout of farms. As and whe© land came into possession of the State, farms could be modernised. He realised that there would be many difficulties to overcome when they got down to details. He did not care whether they called it nationalisation or not, but something wotild have to be done in that direction, whether they liked it or not. He did not believe in the State actually entering the farming business.