INCREASED POTATO PRODUCTION NEEDED

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 75, Issue 4, 15 October 1947, Page 339

INCREASED POTATO PRODUCTION NEEDED

New Price Schedule Assures Payable Crops

POTATOES form ail essential part of the daily diet of New Zealanders, and a regular and ade- - '' quate supply is therefore impor0 tant the community. essential part of the daily diet of New Zealanders, and a regular and adequate supply is therefore important to the community. If potatoes, which are easily grown and a profitable crop in New Zealand, , * form a substantial part of menus, AA consumption of other foods is corWHA—afflM respondingly reduced, providing an increased surplus for export. Home gardeners can help substantially in the campaign for increased production by devoting as much space as possible this season to a potato crop, and I appeal also to commercial growers to increase the acreage in potatoes this season.

The problems associated with -the maintenance of the potato supply are worth some consideration. In the i first place, the potato is a perishable commodity, and the maintenance of a regular supply throughout the year involves on the one hand out-of-season production and consequent reduced yields, and on the other hand storage over a' considerable period with inevitable storage losses. Secondly, potato yields are very subject ito fluctuation with the season and the incidence of disease. In recent years the average yield of table potatoes has ranged from 3 1/3 to 5 tons an acre, which involves a variation from the mean of 20 per cent, in either direction.

Then there is the fact that no reliable outlet, either by processing or by export, exists to take care of the surplus production in favourable seasons. Conversely, there is no assurance of potatoes being available from overseas in the event of a short crop.

Again, the growing of potatoes on a commercial scale requires considerable labour. Despite the introduction of. mechanisation to the industry, the employment of outside labour at harvesting time is still essential, and this at a time of the year when the weather can be very fickle, to say the least.

With all these factors mitigating' against stability in the industry, only during the war and since has uncertainty of price been removed as a further source of worry to the potato grower. Before the war prices were subject to fluctuation according to the crop, and might vary from the cost of digging in glut years to more than £2O a ton in lean years. Such conditions also provided a fertile field for the operations. of the “potato speculator.” Since 1942 the marketing of potatoes has come within the sphere of price control, and, with the added protection of contracts extended to growers, it has been possible to give stability to one of the upsetting factors in potato production.

This stability, I believe, has been appreciated alike by growers, consumers, and distributors. However, it arose out of a set of emergency conditions, and now that those conditions have disappeared the parties interested in potato production are giving attention to the possibility of establishing a planned industry which will remove to the greatest possible extent the gamble associated with pre-war production. During the war the industry, through its representatives on the Potato Advisory Committee, co-operated to the fullest extent with the Government to ensure maintenance of production at the desired levels, and I know a continuation of that same spirit of co-operation will help to place the industry in a more satisfactory position than it was in pre-war years.

The acreage devoted to potatoes has recently fallen below that estimated to meet New Zealand requirements, and in view of the world food position every effort must be made to ensure that at least 25,000 acres are grown this season.

Officers of the Department of Agriculture last season undertook a comprehensive survey of the costs of potato production, and as an outcome growers’ prices for main crop potatoes during the 1947-48 season have been increased. The adjustment amounts to an overall increase of £1 a ton above the 1946-47 prices, with an additional increase of 10s. a 'ton for Dakotas , grown in the South Island, this variety now being included in the premium price group. A schedule of prices which will be paid to growers for f.a.q. grade main crop potatoes delivered next year is set out elsewhere in this issue of the “Journal.”

As growers are aware, subsidy adjustments relating to farm production are now being arranged. The schedule set out has not made provision for these adjustments as they affect potato production costsparticularly of sacks and fertilisers when finality has been reached the prices already announced will be examined again with a view to making any adjustment which may be found necessary to meet the altered costs of production.

Though it is fully realised that any schedule of prices cannot be expected to eliminate all the production problems which the potato grower is required to face, the information supplied by growers to Departmental officers during the cost survey indicates that the price schedule adopted for the 1947-48 crop is a payable one. This fact, together with the assurances to the grower under the system of contract growing, which is to be continued in the coming season, will at least remove from the mind of the potato grower concern about the possibility of over-production. I believe that potato growers will realise the value of that security and, in view of the difficulties associated with food production today, that they will be -prepared to produce the Dominion’s requirements of potatoes.

EDWARD CULLEN,

Minister of Agriculture.