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HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
to the north of Tai Mo Shan is being prepared for the cultivation of this crop. Certain hilly areas in the New Territories are being planted up with ginger under arrangements with local fruit pre- serving firms, which wish to reduce their dependence on supplies from China. Some fair crops have been harvested and the quality is improving as the farmers concerned gain in experience.
As explained in the section dealing with Land Utilization, land resources in the Colony are very limited and settlement is confined to resettlement of refugee farmers and urban squatter cultivators. Due to industrial expansion many people who were supplementing their income by cultivating patches of land in the urban areas have had to discontinue this practice. Some who relied entirely on what they could get from the land have had to move to the New Territories and start afresh. This migration from city to country is, wherever possible, organized and carried out by the Land Utilization Section of the Agricultural Division. In the past five years an additional area of 350 acres of marginal land has been opened up for cultivation by refugee farmers. Land has been terraced on the hillsides in Tsuen Wan and elsewhere with assistance from the field staff of the Department and financial support from welfare organizations.
As part of the Government's agricultural policy, much has been done over the past five years to improve water supply and irriga- tion for farming. Up to the end of 1958 the Government, aided by grants from Colonial Development and Welfare funds (see Appendix I), had constructed two-impounding reservoirs of 48,000,000 gallons capacity at Lo Fu Hang and Hung Shui Hang; 71,900 feet of irrigation channels; 42 diversion dams; 19 water ponds for vegetable farming; and an irrigation system at Sheung Shui by pumping water from the Indus River. In addition, seven small impounding reservoirs have been repaired and more irriga- tion systems installed. Valuable assistance for this work has been rendered by the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association, a philanthropic organization which associates its welfare work with Government planning and whose activities are directed in the technical field by the Director of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry. By the end of 1958 this organization had supplied sufficient cement to farmers to enable them to construct 37 new wells, 63 diversion