I was pointing out last night the valuable contribution which farmers' organisations can make towards increasing the volume of production so urgently required from the land at the present time. We must remember that the only immediate prospect of improving our balance of payments position is to increase agricultural exports by at least £50,000,000 as soon as possible. Now that can be done. It can be done because there is a huge acreage of potentially fertile land waiting to produce food. The experience of our farmers in the past has been that, if they produce a surplus of any crop, they cannot find a market for it, and they are, therefore, obliged to put that produce on sale for home consumption at sacrifice prices. I emphasise home consumption because I realise that, if we expect the farmers to produce more live stock and more surplus crops, we must be in a position to export that surplus, since our population here has a limit, so far as consumption is concerned. Indeed, we can all too easily produce too much food for our own people.
Our objective, therefore, must be to find a market outside for our surplus produce and we must find a market which will pay our farmers a reasonably profitable price. Now the difficulty, so far as farming is concerned, is that production costs are so high the surplus produce from our land cannot be sold outside the country. We can produce here too much of most types of food and, when we try to sell the surplus outside, we find ourselves competing in a world market. Owing to our system of production, a system which is out-dated, our production costs are so high that we are unable to sell our surplus produce economically on the world market.
For that reason, I believe that the various farmers' organisations, such as Muintir na Tíre, the National Farmers' Association and the Young Farmers' Clubs, have a very valuable contribution to make towards improving our agricultural economy. Looking back over the past, it is obvious that we must look to these organisations now to guide the farmers whom they represent, by voluntary effort and co-operation, in relation to both production costs and modern methods of production. In addition to that, we shall have to devise better marketing schemes throughout the country for our surplus of both crops and live stock.
At the moment, the only surplus which can be easily marketed is beef and we have a ready market for all the beef we can produce. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about other surpluses which we are also capable of producing. From that point of view, I think the farmers organisations should get down to the business of costing the various items of food for the guidance of farmers, so that they, in turn, can bring down their costs of production, thereby enabling us to compete in the world market. Nobody can deny that we have three acres of land for every unit of our population and, from that point of view, we are capable of producing a huge surplus. If we succeed in producing that surplus at the right price, we can certainly get it sold on the world market. We cannot ask the farmers to produce at surpluses and then sell their produce at sacrifice prices, so we must set about cutting down costs for the various products which can be produced quickly in the immediate future so that we can export to improve our balance of payments position. Were it not for our agricultural exports at the present time, this country would be in a very bad position.
When we examine the figures, we see that in 1947, £40,000,000 worth of livestock products were exported as compared with £120,000,000 worth to-day. Even with that huge increase in the monetary value of our exports, it is not sufficient to put our balance of payments in proper order. Therefore, we must immediately set about adopting some kind of policy which will enable a huge increase to take place in our agricultural exports. We need not look to industry to improve our balance of payments to any considerable extent within a short time but most people familiar with agricultural conditions will agree that there is a reasonable prospect of a sure market for the products of the land if the farmers could increase production dramatically. They are nervous of doing so having regard to past experience when they succeeded in producing surpluses of various crops. That is why I consider that the farmers' organisations have a very important part to play now.
If we cannot get into markets outside this country with our food, we need not consider ourselves an agricultural country with an agricultural economy. For that reason, I feel that by adopting modern methods of production and better systems of marketing we shall get that export trade which is needed very urgently now by the country.
When we are considering these things we should also consider the farms from which those exports should come. We must expect the export trade to come from the small farmers of this country; two-thirds of the total number of farms are occupied by small farmers. We must ask ourselves what type of surplus can be produced on a small farm. If we take a 20-acre farm, we need not hope that such a farm will be capable of producing a large number of either cattle or sheep. We must look to those small farms to increase dramatically the production of pigs and poultry. The small farmer's wife in the past contributed a very large share to the national wealth by her efforts on those small farms, by feeding calves, pigs and poultry. It is to that side of our economy that the small farmers can make the greatest contribution. When we decide that the small farmers of the country can give us a surplus of pigs and poultry, we must immediately get down to the problem of costings for those two items in order that they will have a certain market and a certain profit on those two items.
We have seen in the past that production costs in the poultry industry have been very inconsistent. Poultry farmers made good profits in one particular year or in one part of a particular year and then they suffered a loss in the latter part of the year or in the year following. They were going out of poultry and then going into poultry, usually at the wrong time, instead of keeping consistent stock. When we consider that there are people engaging in poultry production who have not the facilities which are available to the small farmers, we realise that if the small farmers could be assured of a steady and stable market for their poultry produce they could engage in a consistent way in that sphere of production.
The position as far as pig production is concerned is not so difficult. There has been a reasonably steady market for pigs during the last few years. There again, if we ask our small farmers to increase dramatically the number of pigs produced and the amount of bacon supplied to our factories, which will, in the long run, be exported, we must be able to give them guidance in the matter of costings in order that they will have a certainty of profit and a sure market.
I was very interested in the particulars given by the Minister in his Estimate. He devoted a considerable amount of time to the problem of pig production when he was introducing his Estimate and showed clearly the value that pig production can be to this country. He showed also that pig production is not a matter of chance any longer. Costings have been cut down to a very fine position in the matter of pig production.
We are now able to calculate to the last pound the amount of food and proteins fed to the pigs and the weight that will result from such feeding. That is very useful for any man who desires to go into pig production. I am going to ask the Minister to start a campaign for pig production amongst the small farmers and to ask them to follow the various feeding systems and rations which are now made available to them by experts in pig production. If they can get a profit from it, we shall be able to increase our exports in that sphere. We can increase our pig population more rapidly than any other form of live stock. The number of pigs can be increased more rapidly than either poultry, cattle or sheep. I think that, if the Minister appeals to the small farmers to increase their pig production and adopt this form of feeding, he will get good results.
Most farms in this country are understocked but I feel we ought to concentrate, for the present anyway, on starting activities on the small farms which will result in profit to the families living on those farms. We have seen that since the war the volume of production has increased mainly on the larger farms and the explanation of that is that modern machinery and mechanisation has enabled a greater amount to be done in a given time. The machinery is suitable for those larger farms, but when we consider that by far the greater number of our farmers here are small farmers, we must direct our attention to them first, because I believe that the larger farmers will follow, if there is a sound economy created on the smaller farms.
On that point, I should like to know from the Minister whether there is a limit to the amount of credit which can be made available through the Agricultural Credit Corporation for the purchase of sows which would enable small farmers to go into pig production right away. I know there are formalities to be complied with, and possibly a farmer desiring to go into pig production may have to wait a short time in order that a sow can be made available to him. I believe many small farmers would be prepared to avail of that very useful scheme through the Pigs Marketing Board, if they were assured of a ready market for all the pigs produced on their farms.
When I speak about production on these small farms, I feel that farmers there should concentrate on producing their own food for those pigs. It will hardly be economic for them, if they have to purchase certain classes of food from the neighbouring farmers in order to feed these pigs, because neighbouring farmers will expect, naturally, to make a profit on those crops and it will only be the surplus that will be put on the market for those small farmers.
Most of our farms are understocked, and I was glad to hear from the Minister that he is going to start a vigorous campaign asking farmers to devise whatever means may be possible to increase the number of cattle. It is obvious that even if we had twice the number of cattle we have at present, we have a ready sale—only across the water—for all the cattle we can produce. It takes some years for that population to be brought up, but the sooner the farmers start to increase the number of live stock on their land, including cattle and sheep, the better for the country. We have to depend on the farmers because our industries are earning by their exports only a small proportion of our national income at the present time. In the face of world competition, we cannot expect our infant industries to go into the traditional markets to sell the goods produced here in our own factories but, indeed, some of our manufacturers are going into the foreign markets successfully.
Looking back over the past few years we see that the real change in agricultural policy took place when the present Minister took responsibility. It began with the 1948 Trade Agreement with Great Britain which took the place of the 1938 Trade Agreement Agreement. The 1938 Trade Agreement between Great Britain and this country was too long in force and resulted in the farmers here selling their cattle at depressed prices during the war when there was a really strong demand for them in a free market.