Agricultural Attache Addresses Lincoln Graduates

Press, Volume C, Issue 29506, 6 May 1961, Page 14

Agricultural Attache Addresses Lincoln Graduates

•‘On one hand we see countries with highly developed technologies continuing to allocate an increasing amount of resources to research and education so as to consolidate further and improve their position, and on the other, less-developed countries also seek to speed their technological development so that their people may share in the better life they see about. These areas have largely slept through the developments of the last century; now, like sleeping giants aroused, they feel they must make up for lost time,” said Dr. Daniel Brady, Agricultural Attache at the American Embassy in Wellington, in his graduation address at Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln, yesterday. “The admonition to make haste slowly, quite apart from whether it is good advice or not, will not be heeded,” Dr. Brady said. “We are mindful that in the evolution of farming

there has resulted an agricultural bereft of much of its own self-sufficiency. It will come as no surprise to you that in solving certain problems we have created others. The farmer has become deeply involved as he has come to be more closely tied to the industrial markets Thus more cash sales are needed to buy the goods and services he desires, such as refrigerators and telephones. “Understandably, many of us have been so absorbed with the problems of commercial farming as to have given little real thought to the unsettling influence which results when the great majority of the world’s farmers contribute so little to the commercial supply of food and fibre. This is the group for whom technology, urbanisation and commercialisation are still unknown and yet very much over the horizon.. We are, it seems, becoming increasingly conscious that more is needed to solve the world’s agricultural

problems than economic schemes and agricultural reforms and that furthermore the crux of our problem is also psychological and moral. “What should we strive for as a world agricultural goal? Is it not an agriculture, stable, secure, with adequate prices and earnings, and one that can supply consumer needs indefinitely? This may not seem to be an unreasonable goal, yet it is one that no nation in history has ever attained. The historian may some day smile at the problems we face today, but for us, this changing world offers problems most real and serious. “Problems of plant and animal disease, soil erosion, farm mechanisation, balance of payments difficulties, disruptions in foreign markets, and the dislocations from war and strife are often of such overwhelming magnitude that they at times dull our desire to find the answers, and yet it is the answers that we must most certainly find. Management “It is clear that we owe much to our advancing technology. With it has come the mechanisation and automation necessary to harness energy and materials needed for the abundant life; yet in so doing we have put an extraordinary demand on the human factor-management. I Surpluses, scarcities, unemployment and even overemployment can all be considered indications that our social engineering has not kept pace with other engineering. “Our ways are deeply rooted in moral attitudes which we sometimes oversirnply speak of as ‘right’ and ‘wrong.’ Tltis in itself has brought about a continuing tension as we have forced ourselves into the rather paradoxical situation of trying to maintain our individuality and at the same time to co-operatively organise so as to make our divisions of labour feasible.” Dr. Brady said he felt the key factor in organisation was management. An organisation existed for the sole reason of performance, and the test of success was the results it produced The effective manager was one who was able to multiply the impact of the strengths of the various individuals within, giving them the direction, focus, concentration. and support necessary to obtain this performance. “The experience you have shared here has, I am sure, given you an appreciation of what research and education can do to improve not only your lot but also that of others. It may seem odd that fate has made these opportunities yours. Certainly you would not have these same opportunities if this was 1761 or if you had been born coloured in the Congo.”