FASTER PROGRESS

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19123, 18 September 1936, Page 11

FASTER PROGRESS

AGRICULTURAL SERVICE NEW MINISTER’S POLICY MORE CO-OPERATION BETTER FARM PRACTICE (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Co-operated effort, is being made the keynote of the policy of tile Department of Agriculture in order to secure faster progress towards the goal of greater general efficiency, increased production, and improved quality of farm products. This is the policy of the present Minister of Agriculture, the lion. W, Leo Martin, who feels that there is ample scope for further progress, and he intends to see that. the department is organised with unified effort in order to secure the desired result. He outlined his policy in the first annual report of the department which lie was responsible for submitting to the House. “The report,’’ he said, “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. 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 rellected in practice. “However, it may bo 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. WORK OF DEPARTMENT “The .work of the department is now being organised on certain basic conceptions, the application 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 desirable. This 'Ansek'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. “Co-operation 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 tin’s is especially trrnUof those who are most directly concerned 1 — t.e., the farmers themselves and their organisations. “In short, co-operated effort is being made a keynote of the policy of tho 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 to greater general efficiency, begetting both increased production and improved quality in our farm products. “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, INVESTIGATION WORK

“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 our 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 gralifyingly 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: (1) There was a substantial increase, of 38,303' 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 ending September the increase in comparison with the previous year promises to approximate 120,000 carcases. Further profitable expansion of pig production is clearly in sight, and the department is planning to foster such profitable expansion to the fullest possible extent-.”