I recently attended, online, the annual general meeting of the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural and Horticulture Sciences held at Lincoln University.
It was held after a forum titled ” Can farmers mitigate climate change?”
It held a special meaning for me because when I was president in 1970/71 my AGM was held at Lincoln College. It was not a university in those days only a College of the University of New Zealand.
Over the years the Institute has played a major role in bringing rival groups together. It’s been a worthwhile group to belong to for the good of the country.
The spark that set it off was Margot Cowen after she came over from Australia to head up the department of Agriculture’s Seed Research Section. She was a member of the Australian Institute of Agricultural Science.
I was present when she asked Doug Campbell why didn’t New Zealand have an Institute?
Doug was the ‘father’ of soil conservation and was a great one for getting things done. He had been a secondary school teacher. He lobbied a group of people to attend a meeting at Victoria University to discuss the merits of such an organisation.
The first formal meeting was held in the old Wakefield house on the Terrace in the 1950s.
I came down from Wanganui to attend this meeting. Shortly after this old house was demolished and a multi-story building was erected on the site.
Later when working in New Plymouth I set up a Taranaki branch of the Institute. We held our meetings in the Ivon Watkins Dow cafeteria. This branch played a major role in bringing commercial people and extension workers together.
One day a lawyer called into my office and said. “I have a client that wants to make a difference in agriculture. Have you any ideas? Her name is Elizabeth Ellison Trimble.” That’s how the Trimble Agricultural Trust was formed.
Dick Bevin had been Deputy Principal of Lincoln College before moving to Wellington. One day he invited me to dinner at his home in Wadestown. His objective was to ask me to stand for office – that’s how I ultimately become President of the Institute.
What did I contribute? I designed the logo. It was hard to combine a plant and an animal symbol into a logo. The bud for a growing plant and the cloven hoof for animals.
I more than doubled the membership by asking all members to sign up one new member over the next year. I wrote to each member stating why we need to increase our numbers.
Shortly after we employed APA (Agriculture Promotional Associates) to handle our publicity and business matters. At that stage, we were producing books.
In 1970 the Institute produced a large book titled, “Beef Production Processing and Marketing”. It was a summary of all knowledge on the topic. I presented a copy to Keith Holyoake, the then Prime Minister. I took afternoon tea with him and we had a long chat largely about his early history.
APA was headed up by a retired Director-General of Lands and later he became D.G of Agriculture, D.N.R. Webb. He was ably assisted by David Yerex the man that set up the Guild of Agricultural Journalists. David had been the editor of the Dairy Exporter magazine and Director of Information for the Dairy Board.
One Institute highlight was a meeting of the Commonwealth Associations of Scientific Agricultural Societies (CASAS) held in Lautoka, Fiji in August 1981.
The theme was “Self-sufficiency in Food Production – Opportunities and Constraints”
The 146-page proceedings were published by the University of the South Pacific. I believe the Canadian Government put up much of the money for this worthwhile event.
Today not many people seem to have heard of the Institute. I believe we need more publicity.
There are many major problems we should be giving our views on as well as on climate change.
The slow uptake of research findings by producers would be one of the areas to consider, and the closing down of practical training schools for New Zealand youths is another.
3,000 youths were trained in rural skills at Flock House before it was closed down. Rural cadet training schemes seemed to have disappeared. I started my career as a farm cadet.
To sum up, the Institute needs to increase numbers and grow. We need to carry out more lobbying and media publicity and let us never forget the world is overpopulated and we all need to eat.
Our export earnings are the key to our prosperity but city politicians seem to have forgotten this simple fact.
Research, extension, and production are the three key elements to a successful country – let’s not forget it!
Geoffrey Moss, HFNZIAHS, EEF (Eisenhower Exchange Fellow)
Another Handful of Tips 