11 June 1985 Intensified farm production - AERU research report released

Closer settlement policies could be revitalised and gains made in employment and productivity by fostering the trend towards smaller farms in intensive production of non-traditional crops and livestock, according to research sociologist Dr John Fairweather, of the Agricultural Economics Research Unit at Lincoln College .

Dr Fairweather gives his view in a research report, just released by the A.E.R.U., on land policy and land settlement in New Zealand.

Changes in the structure of agriculture since 1971 showed that intensified production was bringing about more farms, he said.

Redefining priority to settlement on more intensive farms and providing support to help farmers beqin more intensive production could go a long way to fostering closer settlement, he said.

A potentially effective closer settlement policy was one that created farms . Dr Fairweather said the present trend to smallholding suggested that closer settlement policies and land policies could be made compatible.

This could be so if viable closer settlement policies were linked to the trend to more intensified production on small farms .

"Government policies have always sought to foster economic development," Dr Fairweather said .

Meantime, tension between production policies and closer settlement policies persisted.

"While there has been an increase in the number of smallholdings in recent years, the process of farm enlargement continues" he said.

"There is tension in trying to pursue policies which have opposite consequences.

"Closer settlement policies support increasing the number of farms, while production policies support improving profitability by increasing farm size, thereby decreasing farm numbers."

Dr Fairweather said that the Land Settlement Promotion and Land Acquisition Act of 1952, was to a large extent, a token gesture to show concern about aggregation of land.

"farm size began to increase from the very time the law was introduced, suggesting that the law had little real effect," he said.

"The Lands and Survey Farm Settlement Scheme, laudable in the social objective of helping young farmers enter agriculture and the economic objective of paying its way, is having only a minor impact on contemporary agricultural structure."

Dr Fairweather said the scheme got wide publicity, perhaps to indicate that governments were still pursuing closer settlement policies.

Further information from Dr John Fairweather, Agricultural Economics Research Unit, Lincoln College 8150, Canterbury, New Zealand.