04 September 1985 Pea production in New Zealand at risk of competition

Surpluses of peas likely to develop from expanding production in European Economic Community countries could compete on traditional New Zealand markets with peas grown in this country, Professor Jim White, Professor of Agronomy at Lincoln College, told the Agronomy Society of New Zealand pea symposium.

The pea symposium was held in conjunction with the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural Science Convention in the first week of September.

Professor White said New Zealand could not expect to survive such competition unless the N.Z. product was really superior in quality, and gave an economic advantage to the consumer.

Packaging and marketing of N.Z. green peas was already at a high level, but sales of dried pea products, seed peas and peas for stock feed could certainly be improve .

Higher and uniform quality standards, improved packaging and well-planned marketing were needed.

Professor White said the long-term future of the pea industry depended on farmers, seed merchants and the Government working together to develop packaging and marketing to a high level.

"There's little purpose in increasing pea yields if the extra production cannot be sold overseas," he said.

Peagrowing was expanding rapidly in E.E.C. countries, where peas were replacing soybeans as a protein supplement for animal feeds .

If this growth continued the E.E.C. countries would have about one million hectares of peas planted each year by the early 1990s, Professor White said.

New Zealand presently sold overseas frozen, dehydrated and canned green peas, split peas, pea meal and dried peas for boiling, and all had a good reputation for quality.

The N.Z. climate was cool, but dry at harvest, and there was high technology in growing and processing the crop.

Size, colour, contamination, chemical composition and flavour were all important for both green and dried peas.

Professor White said present production of peas in New Zealand was 30,000 ha, with 70 per cent threshed and 30 per cent vined.

Canterbury was the most important region for both threshed. and vined peas, while Hawkes Bay was a major producer of vined peas.

Since the early 1970s average yields of threshed peas had risen 29 per cent from 2.5 tonnes a hectare to 3.2 tonnes/ha.

Peas were the third most important annual cash crop in New Zealand, but took up less than half the area of wheat or barley .

Direct costs of growing peas were higher than for cereals, largely because of the cost of seed, but gross margins compared favourably with barley, although were presently less than for wheat.

Professor White said high yields were essential for high profitability, but production costs for high yields were very little more than for average yields.

Peas were grown mainly for export, with about 70 per cent of threshed peas and 33 per cent of frozen peas going overseas.

These exports earned New Zealand $45.5 million dollars last year.

Dried peas were the most valuable product going to overseas markets, among these Australia, Singapore, India, Britain and Japan.

Exports had not changed significantly in the last five years, but the value of dried peas had increased by 96 per cent and frozen peas by 141 per cent.

Professor White said that a viable pea industry in New Zealand depended on crop yields, quality, and packaging and marketing.

Peas yielded less than cereals, and yield fluctuated sharply from year to year.

However, prospects for increasing and stabilizing yield were bright, but this could be done only through the combined efforts of farmers, advisers and scientists.

Autumn sowing was one of the possibilities for increasing yield by reducing water stress during growth and less irrigation.

Harvesting would be earlier, and a cash crop of barley could be grown after vining peas had been harvested.

Earlier harvesting would extend the processing season ; using labour and machinery at processing plants more economically .

However, more research was needed if farmers were to adopt autumn sowing, he said.

More would need to be known on optimum sowing dates, economic plant populations, disease problems and suitable soils.

Professor White said there was a need to select and probably breed cultivars which were short vined and resisted lodging, and also resisted cold and frost.

Lincoln College had started trials of autum sowing of garden peas this year, sowing the Pania, Combi and Novella cultivars.

Pania is a standard vininq pea, Comb is a long-vined cultivar, and Novella a semi-leafless selection.

These were planted on four dates from the end of March until the end of May, and peas from the May sewings should be ready to harvest in early to the middle of November.

Professor White said peas with long, weak vines lodged early, and were difficult to harvest.

The ideal variety for the new podding machines needed to stay erect at harvest and not lodge.

The variety also needed to produce a lot of evenly-maturing pods at the top of the vine.

Professor White said plant breeders faced a considerable challenge in meeting these requirements.

Future varieties would need to be shorter vined and stronger stemmed.

Semi-leafless peas produced a much more erect crop through mutual tendril support, and were important for pea growers.

Peas were more sensitive to poor soil aeration and waterlogging than most other crops, he said.

As little as 12 hours of waterlogging would reduce yields ; two days of waterlogging would kill peas completely.

This most often happened on soils with poor drainage, but poor soil structure, over-cultivation or compaction by heavy machinery could increase the problem.

On poorly-drained soils waterlogging occurred if irrigation raised soil water to above field capacity, or if heavy rain followed irrigation to field capacity.

Professor White said water stress was also a problem with peas, but some irrigation practices might not be the best way of correcting this.

Large yield increases could be obtained during severe drought or with late sowings by watering at the vegetative stage, well before flowering.

The cost of installing irrigation and applying water was high, and farmers could not afford less than a maximum response.

Using a water budget to more accurately predict the level of soil water deficit was best for knowing when to irrigate to achieve the highest yield.