PRODUCTION AND MARKETING
majority of farmers are sub-tenants and in many cases sub-tenancies are held through two or three hands. Land is usually rented for a period of one year and rent is charged at the rate of 40%-60% of the rice yield. An arrangement whereby the tenant and the landlord farm in partnership has been in operation for many years in the New Territories and appears to work satisfactorily.
Most farmers grow two crops of rice on irrigated land and, if their farms are close to vegetable collecting centres, or have easy access to the centres, they raise vegetables and sweet potatoes on a portion of the fallow following the second rice crop. The greater use of fallow land for catch cropping depends upon water supply and the ability to maintain fertility by the use of fertilizers. Farmers who concentrate on vegetable production farm small areas which seldom exceed 1 acre and are usually very much smaller but, by intensive cultivation, the use of nightsoil, organic fertilizers and artificial fertilizers, a satisfactory level of production is maintained.
Ploughs, harrows and hand tools are of local origin and give good service. Human labour is plentiful and is used on all forms of farm work including digging, harrowing, seeding, transplanting, spraying, watering and weeding. Most of the work on the small vegetable patches is performed by hand tools and human labour. During the dry weather water is lifted by tread wheels and distributed by watering cans from wells or centrally placed concrete storage pits. The latter are also used as receptacles for diluting nightsoil with water before feeding it to the vegetable plots.
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