TRADE WITH BURMA

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 331, 19 September 1932, Page 2

TRADE WITH BURMA

VISITING CABINET MINISTER INVESTIGATING THE POSSIBILITIES. In the course of his present four months' leave, which he is dividing between New Zealand and Australia, Mr. A. McKerrel, Director of Agriculture in Burma, is examining the possibilities of building up an export trade from Burma to New Zealand in an improved variety of haricot hean which is one of the main crops of the middle dry zone of the country. New Zealand used to take a certain amount of variety of haricot bean previously grown in Burma, but this kind has now been replaced by a new and very much better sort, introduced by Mr. McKerrell's department. The department is closely interested at present in improving the quality of the rice, which is Burma's pr'incipal export, and in recovering the London market for the commodity — a market which has been eaptured in recent years hy rice from America, Spain and Italy. The department has divided the rice country into eight areas, each in the charge of a deputy-director, and pussessing an experimental farm. The rice is being improved by erossing it with varieties from America and other countries, to make it suitable for th'e London market. Experimental work is being carried out with fertilisers, the most suitable so far found being ' ammonium sulphate, with which excellent results are being obtained. The rice is grown in the wetter part of Southern Burma. Crops of other sorts, including the haricot hean, are grown in th© mid-dle-dray zone. The natives of Burma, who helonged to one of the Mongolian races, and were practically the same as the Siamese, took quite readily to the improvements which the department suggested, Mr. ICerrell said. Nothing was introduced that could not be included in the natives' own system of working — they were not forced to

adopt new methods right through, hut they were provided with better seed, and so on. The Burmese, he added, had the advantage of not possessing ia caste sys- [f tem such' as there was in India proper.