WHEAT GROWING

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4560, 15 April 1942, Page 6

WHEAT GROWING

MORE PRODUCTION MINISTERIAL APPEAL Emphasis has been laid, by the Director of the Fields Division of the Department of Agriculture, on the necessity for a much greater effort to increase the quantity of wheat produced in New Zealand. In order to meet the domestic demand, and provide a small reserve for, the future, a minimum of 300,000 acres should be planted. In the current season only 258,000 acres were devoted to wheat. The total represented an increase of about 15,000 acres on that of the preceding year, and if a further 42,000 acres are to be creasing shortage of labour tended to be a great co-operative effort. The position of the Dominion in this respect is attributable to the marked decline in wheat-growing in the years 1937-38, when between 30,000 and 40,000 acres went out of production. The chief contributing factor was the difficulty in securing labour, many men having been attracted away from the farms. In 1939-40 there came a splendid response from the growers, and the area under wheat was increased by 68,000 acres. This, aided by a slight improvement in the average yield, gave an increase in the crop of nearly 2,500,000 bushels. The effort clearly used up a large part of the productive margin available, and the increasing shortage of labour tended td limit operations. The Director of the Fields Division has stated, that arrangements have been completed with the military authorities for the release of men for planting and harvesting, but perhaps it will be necessary to devise some method of providing the necessary implements. The mafter is one which the various Production Councils could probably handle efficiently and with wheat, “the most important food commodity that the New Zealand farmer can produce,” no further incentive could be desired. ' ,