§ 3.47 p.m.
§ The Secretary of State for Scotland (Mr. Westwood)I am aware that from time to time in the past, the suggestion has been made that the party to which I belong is not interested in agriculture. Actually, this is wholly untrue. We fully recognise the fundamental importance of this industry and consider, as I believe Members in all parts of the Committee would agree, that an efficient and prosperous agriculture is an essential part of the wellbeing of the State. That this is the Government's view is borne out, I submit, by the course of action which we have pursued since we came into office.
By announcement on 15th November, 1945, the Government indicated the principles of their long term policy for food and agriculture. The cardinal point in this is the adoption of a system of 2171 assured markets and guaranteed prices for the principal products, milk, fat livestock, eggs, cereals, potatoes and sugar beet. By this system, not only are actual prices fixed well in advance of the periods to which they relate, but, in the case of livestock and livestock products, for which it is necessary that the farmer should plan well ahead, minimum prices will be fixed biennially. Farmers will thus know the prices for cereals, potatoes, and sugar beet well before the time comes for sowing those crops. For fat livestock, milk and eggs, they will know the minimum prices several years in advance and actual prices some three to 15 months ahead.
A feature of the procedure under this system is the annual prices review, which has, for convenience, been fixed in February of each year. At that time, the Agricultural Departments, with the fullest possible record of the economic position of the industry before them, will confer with the representatives of the industry with a view to reaching, if possible, agreed inferences from the data available and agreed conclusions as to the detailed adjustments of prices desirable. It will be clear to hon. Members that this procedure involves freely sharing the official sources of information with the farmers' representatives. That the farmers appreciate this frankness is indicated by the fact that on the occasion of the comprehensive review last February it was possible to reach agreed conclusions. I am aware that thoughtful farmers attach great importance to the system and the procedure which has been adopted, and realise that goodwill and a cooperative spirit, together with the adoption of a national rather than a sectional outlook, are essential to its full success.
There is another side to this policy. For one thing, with the State committed to a guaranteed market and price, it is clear that sooner or later it may be found necessary to set limits to the quantities of particular products to which the guarantee will apply. That does not arise now, in these days of general scarcity, and, as my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture indicated in the statement to which I have referred, due notice would be given of any such intention. What I want to mention now very briefly is the machinery which I propose to set up in Scotland to secure the highest possible degree of efficiency in the industry. 2172 As hon. Members are aware, the agriculture executive committees have done splendid work during the war period. I have pleasure in taking this further opportunity of witnessing to their devoted labours. They have raised the standard of efficiency in their counties, and it is clear that if the gains are to be consolidated and increased, some organisation of broadly similar type will be desirable in the future. Accordingly, as I informed the House recently in reply to a question by the hon. Member for East Fife (Mr. Henderson Stewart) I intend in November next to set up new area executive committees to take the place of the existing agriculture executive committees. The new committees will each consist of about 14 members to be appointed by me after consultation with the representative organisations of landowners, farmers and agricultural workers. They will take over the whole of the executive functions arising under the Government's agricultural policy. So long as it is necessary to continue certain local services, these will be carried out by sub-committees with local headquarters in the districts of the present agriculture executive committees.
When the cropping programme for 1946 was under review at the beginning of last year, it was hoped that a return to something like the tillage acreage of 1941 would be possible; that meant roughly equivalent to a drop of 10 per cent. from the peak cropping figures of 1943 and 1944. A restoration of the livestock output was envisaged from 1946 onwards, with a consequent reduction in the production of crops for human food. Later in the year, however, it became evident that it would not be possible to allow so much freedom of cropping as had been earlier expected, nor particularly in relation to potatoes and sugar beet. The final programme allowed a reduction of about 5 per cent. on the total area which had been under crop in 1945. With the continuing deterioration in the food situation early in 1946, we found it necessary to go out for the maximum acreage of wheat and other cereal crops, and Agriculture Executive Committees were asked to take whatever steps might be practicable to that end. Later, a further appeal was made to Committees and to farmers to secure the same cropping acreage as in 1945, and to repeat the 1945 potato acreage. As an incentive to farmers to plough up grass, it 2173 was decided to extend the £2 per acre grassland subsidy to grassland three years old or over, ploughed after 5th February, 1946. Previously, as hon. Members are aware, the subsidy had been paid only in respect of grass which had been down for seven years or more. Concurrently with these arrangements, a call was made for the cropping in 1946 of all land on golf courses, recreation grounds and policy parks which had not yet been sown back to grass, even though permission to sow out might already have been given.
Despite the many difficulties which farmers were up against, including the un-certain weather in the winter and early spring․and that is something over which not even the best planning can take complete control, or any control․and the reshaping of a cropping programme determined many months beforehand, it is estimated that Scottish farmers will have under the plough in 1946 a tillage acreage of some 50,000 acres above the target originally set. This result is a very commendable one, and much credit is due to the agriculture executive committees and the farmers themselves who responded wholeheartedly to the various appeals made to them, although they had been looking forward to․and I think they had every reason to expect․some relaxation after their strenuous war years. The total tillage in Scotland in 1946 we estimate provisionally at 1,950,000 acres, including about 1,285,000 acres under wheat, oats and barley, 213,000 acres under potatoes and 12,000 acres under beet.
§ Mr. Snadden (Perth and Kinross, Western)Before the right hon. Gentleman leaves that point, could he say what is the actual acreage of wheat for June?
§ Mr. WestwoodI will try to get those figures when the Under-Secretary is replying. These totals show some fall from the 1945 level. We shall be compelled, in view of the gravity of the international food situation, to call on farmers for even greater efforts in 1947.
As regards the important question of milk production, notwithstanding the difficult feeding stuffs position, and the loss of dairy farms required for housing sites, there is a continuing upward trend in milk production in Scotland. For the year ended last March, the increase in production compared with prewar was 2174 5 per cent., and as much as 12 per cent. compared with the record low production in the year 1941–42. Winter production, about which we have been so much concerned, also shows a steady improvement, last winter's figures being 17 per cent. above those for the winter 1941–42, and 4½ per cent. above prewar winter production figures. Farmers know that, commendable as these results are, the call is for still further efforts to step up production, particularly during the winter, until supply meets demand. Pride of achievement under present conditions also extends to the quality of the milk supply in Scotland where milk of certified and T.T. grades represents about 53 per cent. of the total liquid supply. I am not yet satisfied with that, but it is some achievement, particularly under wartime conditions.
In the Debate on agricultural policy last February I referred to the new arrangements which my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture was making, in association with me, to strengthen his headquarters veterinary staff in Edinburgh, so that I might be more advantageously placed to consider, in future, the veterinary aspects of policy in relation to all other aspects for which I am responsible, which are many. In pursuance of these arrangements, one of the Minister's deputy chief veterinary officers is now stationed in Edinburgh, and I have arranged to provide accommodation for him and his headquarters staff in St. Andrew's House alongside my own Department. If I am to secure the fullest advantage—