MAIZE-GROWERS PROBLEMS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 06, Issue 100, 20 August 1943, Page 4

MAIZE-GROWERS PROBLEMS

WHEN it is found uneconomical to grow maize in the belt of country recognised as the finest maize producing area in the Dominion it is surely time to assume that something is definitely wrong. That 'something' was partially disclosed at the meeting of maize-growers last Thursday evening when after the manner of most- farmers gatherings expressions were forceful and facts were hard. The whole of the maize-growing industry in the Bay of Plenty and Gis-> borne areas appears to be seriously endangered as a result of a succession of disappointing and unsatisfactory years, dating from the well remembered 1941 season when a bumper yield in response to the Government's war appeal, was placed in serious jeopardy first by an insufficiency of labour to harvest it and secondly because of an excessively long period of storage in the crib as a result of a market glut. These are lessons not easily forgotten, but since that time the position, if anything has become even more aggravated that it was. Whsn the cost of plucking and harvesting maize reach the ridiculous figure of £7 10s per acre against the pre:-war average of 25s to £2 it will be conceeded.that the farmer needs more than patriotism and a war effort incentive to continue to produce maize. It is little wonder therefore that the stabilised marketing price is considered inadequate and that this year there appears to be little prospect of farmers in this area growing more than for their own individual needs, needs.