British Agriculture Suffers Big Setback

Chronicle (Levin), 2 April 1947, Page 5

British Agriculture Suffers Big Setback

(Special Correspondent.)

Keceived Tuesday, 9.20 p.m. iiOiXjJOJNf, April 1. The urgent appeal i'or eriiergencj funas lssued dunng tne weeK-ena b j oue xsaaonal rarmers' tfnion haa driven honie the reaiisauion that, whiic Britain is scili straggimg with tne fua. crisis, she faces a furtner possiDiiity oi a ioou crisis. .ti ari ae la Warr, formerly Parliamentary aecretary to the lvnnistry oi Agriculture, writing in the Sunday Exyress, ciaims that the bad weather is not the mam cause of the approaching food crisis ont has merely advanced tnc date. British agriculture, with 110 op portunity to reorganise after the years oi warume emergency prouuccion, ana snort ooth of lauour and oi' new equip nient, first began to envisage a ioou. crisis eariy last year when the June, 19a6, returns sliowed that the area Oland under production had dropped b j 1,250,000 acres. This was followed by the worst summer and worst harvest for 25 years, by drastic cuts in imports oi feeding stuffs eni'orced by the aoiiaj. shortage, and by increasing shortages of farm equipment created by ^the necessity for exporting new equipment, in order to earn dollars. At the sanie tinie, forccd by public opinion, the Goveuunent was compelled to agree to repntriate (lerman prisoners oi' war who previously had supplied much of the agricultural labour deliciency. This was accoinpanied by a 50 per cent. reduetion in the strength of the British Women's Land Army whieh, during the war years, did yeonian service in balancing the drain of labour from the land -to the serviees. Kven then British agriculture might have struggled th rough, but the prolonged bli'/zards of the past two months, followed by widespread floods, have dealt the industrv a body blow. Estimates of tiie losses of sheep and lambs as the result of the liad weather vary between 1,370,000 and 3,000,000, at least 100,(100 aeres planted in grain will be useless, between 30,000 and 50,000 store eattle have been lost, and unestimated quantities of potatoes, hay, vegetables and other farm produce. Under normal conditions these deliciencies might have been replaced from Lurope, hut it is already recognised that the floods and severe winter will have a similar etl'ect upon Continental producers. Tlieir demands upon overseas supplies are certain to increase and lnust correspondiugly dunini.sh Brilain's chances of ohtaining relief. The recent new farm prices agree nient issued hy the (fovernment en visaged an attenipt to decrease crop ping progressively over a period of twu years and direct more attention to grazing and stock raising. This step was takou liecause it was recognised that, after six years of foreed war pro duction, many British fanns urgently required resting and a break from vropping. Jsiow it is admitted this policy nutst go overboard and that every acre whicn wiil produce food irrespective of sucli considerations as profit and loss or longcerm husbandry, must be planted this spring and summer. Fariners do not attenipt to disguise the fact that 011 any long-term view this development must have very serious results. Fariners ' uiiions and leaders of industrv are now urging thej Governmeiit to stop all exports of farml machinery until British agriculture is re-equipped, and to take urgent steps to build up supplies of fertiliser. W'liile the Governiuent has been wrestling with the prohlem of increasing the labour force for the mines, it has been able to do little to deal with Ihe equaily urgent prohlem of labour I'or agriculture. German prisoners are still lieing repatriated at the rate of 15,000 monthly, and the drift from the land to the towns is still continuing. .Short-term proiileins are to restore as much as possible of the flooded land in lirne to undertake spring sowing, to supply funds which will enahle fariners to cominue their operations and v& •stock their farms, and generally to do every tliing possible to miniinise the tremendous losses caused by the iloods ■iiid blizzards. The .Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Williams, with the assistance of the Fariners ' Uiuon, is grappling Avitli these problems deterniinedly and is ex pecled this week to announce detailed emergency plans. These, however, are all subject to ihe nndeniable risk that ihe eoming spring and summer may be >10 bottei than last and that the over strained aiul under-etpiipped British agriculture may not be able to recover the leeway it has lost. Since the British farmer still supplies half of the British public 's rations, and dwindling dollar supplies mahe it urgently neees sarv for him to produce even more. Ihe danger to Britain 's precariously balanced food supplies is obvious.