Historical Developments
The Department of Agriculture was formed on 31 March 1892. The main functions were a combination of animal health inspection/quarantine, and research/testing and farmer advice (Nightingale 1992). The first national conference of Agricultural and Pastoral Associations in 1892 called for assistance in providing farmers with scientific information. This was initially done by experimental farms - two were set up in 1883, and by 1910, the Fields and Experimental Farms Division of the Department of Agriculture (formed in 1907) had established nine farms throughout the North Island. Other activities such as poultry advice and soil analysis were also set up within the Fields Division in 1895 and 1900 respectively. The main requirements of farmers at the time was information to improve the quality of their produce (mainly via hygiene and grading standards at processing factories) and to increase levels of production.
Experimental farms: The experimental farms were run as mixed farms to cover as wide a range of practices as possible. This was criticised at the time by dairy farmers who wanted a specialist experimental dairy farm, and by South Island farmers as there was no experimental farm in the South Island. The farms themselves were expensive to run, consuming one-third of the Department’s budget, and largely unsatisfactory for extension work, due to their isolation and mixed farming objectives.
In 1914, two new organisations were set up by the government: the Council of Agriculture, which was to encourage research and its practical application to farming; and the Board of Agriculture, which was to examine the government’s overall role with respect to farming. In 1922, the Board produced a crucial report, noting that the experimental farms were of little value unless they could demonstrate their usefulness to the local farming community, and that farmers needed more specialist assistance from expert advisors. The result was the setting up of an advisory service within the Fields Division in 1923 with extension and experimental responsibilities for soils, pastures and crops (Stephens 1997). The new organisation had no regulatory responsibilities and gradually built up a team of professionally qualified people throughout the country. Working with individual farmers, it was able to contribute to improvements in productivity, particularly in the dairy industry, resulting from the expansion of topdressing, the adoption of more effective grazing management practices, and the establishment of more productive pastures through the use of superior strains. In the South Island, the benefits were derived from seed certification for crops as well as the new pasture species and livestock management practices.
Post-war expansion: World War II saw a run-down in the Department, so that by 1945 there was a total of 1,129 staff, with only 148 in the Fields Division. By 1950, the total had risen to 1769, with the greatest increase in the Fields Division (which became the Extension Division in 1948) and the Animal Research Division (established in 1939). The goal of the Department, as stated in 1946, was to "increase production to earn overseas funds". In the immediate post-war period, the Fields Division greatly expanded its research facilities, and in particular boosted its research and advisory effort to hill country, following the advent of aerial top dressing (Nightingale 1992).
In the latter half of the 1950s, the responsibilities of Extension Division advisors were redefined to include a clear directive to provide advice to farmers on livestock husbandry and management - a recognition of the state of affairs that already existed in most districts. Up until then, animal husbandry advice was a clear part of the job description of livestock instructors. With this change to Extension Division responsibilities, livestock instructors were given a new area of responsibility, directing their efforts to animal disease prevention (in addition to statutory regulatory responsibilities) rather than animal husbandry (feeding, breeding and management) (Gunning, pers com).
Farm business management: A further change of emphasis, pushed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, was attention to farm business management. An English expert, O Williams, was brought out to oversee the process. The main message was that the management of the farm as a business was of overriding importance in comparison with the soil, plant and animal husbandries. Throughout this whole period, advisors had a two-fold function (Gunning pers com):
- advice to farmers; and
- the continuation of basic on-farm research into such aspects as soil fertility and fertiliser needs, regional testing of new crop and pasture varieties, control of insect and weed problems, and animal responses to trace elements and anthelmintics.
Field trials: In 1964, all the Department’s research activities, including the research stations under the Farm Advisory Division (re-named from the Extension Division in the early 1960s), were grouped together into a single Research Division. At the formation of the Research Division, all advisors were given the choice of remaining in the Farm Advisory Division, as advisors, or transferring to the new Research Division. Following this, advisors remaining with the Farm Advisory Division would be just that - i.e., advisors. The only trials to be conducted by advisors were to be demonstration trials, to demonstrate known results to farmers, not research trials.
The Export Drive: During the last 1950s and early 1960s, there was a growing interest throughout the world in ‘indicative economic planning’, that is, Government and industry working together to identify production and goals to seek to create an economic climate that would facilitate their attainment. The Agricultural Development Conference (ADC) in 1963-64 was one manifestation of this trend. In 1964, the ADC identified growth targets for agriculture over the next decade to stimulate export earnings, together with the policy actions considered necessary to achieve these targets. One of the requirements identified by the Conference was a strengthening of the government’s agricultural extension service, both numerically and also by widening its role to include a monitoring of the situations, attitudes and expectations of farmers and growers, and to play a stronger part in advising on, and helping to implement the government’s responses to the new policy mandate including responses to adverse climatic events and natural disasters affecting agriculture (Squire & Hercus 1995). An Agricultural Production Council was established with a permanent secretariat. This served to coordinate agricultural planning throughout the sector and drew heavily on the resources of the Advisory Division of the Department. Advisory Officers worked with local committees of farmers and financiers to overcome local obstacles to the expansion of production that would achieve the agreed growth targets.
In 1966, as a result of these initiatives, the Farm Advisory Division identified its role as being "to provide a sound technical and farm management advisory service to help farmers to achieve their farming objectives". By the early 1970s, the organisation had adopted Management by Objectives as its working style. By the late 1970s-early 1980s, this involved a formal system whereby the directorate produced an annual statement of the environment in which the agricultural sector was operating, the impacts of any changes on the sector, and the responses that the Advisory Services Division were seeking in the forthcoming year. Regional and district extension plans were then developed to enhance the achievements of these outcomes.
Role of horticulture: In 1972, as part of a general restructuring of government departments, the Fisheries Management and Fisheries Research divisions of the Marine Department combined with the Department of Agriculture to form a Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF). At the same time, the Farm Advisory Division was amalgamated with the Horticultural Division, to form Advisory Services Division. The Horticultural Division had existed in parallel with the Farm Advisory Division, with broadly similar objectives but with more emphasis on regulatory functions, such as disease containment, and export certification.
Advisory Services Division reached its maximum size in 1986, when it consisted of some 670 staff, half of them graduates in agricultural or horticultural science, and with an annual budget of NZ$22 million. Staff were spread throughout the country in 56 locations, with the primary function of providing a free extension service to all farmers and growers. Extension methods covered a wide range of opportunities — regular discussion groups, field days, seminars, articles in newspapers and journals, radio talks, as well as direct one-to-one interactions (see Table 1). Advisors also continued to run local demonstration (and research) trials. In addition to its extension effort, Advisory Services Division also ran the Flockhouse (North Island) and Telford (South Island) training institutes for farm cadets, as well as the diagnostic laboratories in Auckland, Levin and Christchurch.
Contact for Enquiries
Rural Affairs Coordinator
Sector Performance Policy
MAF Policy
Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
PO Box 2526
Wellington
NEW ZEALAND
Phone: +64 4 894 0675
Fax: +64 4 4 894 0745
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