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PRIMARY PRODUCTION
The principal objectives of forestry in Hong Kong are to preserve and improve the vegetative cover on the Colony's steep hillsides, to prevent soil erosion and to assist in the conservation of water supplies, wildlife and the aesthetic and recreational amenities of the countryside. The main problem in implementing this policy is the frequent occurrence, mainly during the dry winter months, of fires which destroy or seriously change both natural vegetation and plantation. The efforts of the Agriculture and Fisheries Department are thus devoted to the prevention, suppression and repair of fire damage, as well as tree-planting and the provision of advisory and conservation education services. During 1971, 174 acres were newly planted with trees and 65 acres replanted. Forestry fire crews were called out to 524 fires. Damage to plantations was approximately 1,683 acres compared with 860 acres in 1970.
AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY
The policy of the Government is to foster the growth of the agricultural industry in Hong Kong so as to make the territory as self-sufficient in food-stuffs as possible, bearing in mind priorities in land utilisation and the economics of food production in the region.
The principal crops grown are vegetables, rice, flowers, fruit and other field crops. The value of crop production has increased from $75.8 million in 1964-5 to $205 million in 1970-1, a rise of some 170 per cent. Vegetable production presently accounts for over 78 per cent of the total value, having increased from $54 million in 1964–5 to $159 million in 1970-1.
Rice is the staple food of the southern Chinese. Two crops of rice a year can be grown on land where water is adequate. The normal yield from an acre of two-crop rice land is approximately two tons, but the yield per acre can be increased to over five tons by planting high yielding strains of rice selected from varieties IR8 and Nonsensitive BPI (bicol) together with improved management and high levels of manuring. Since 1954 the acreage of rice land has dropped from 23,353 acres to 11,288 acres in 1971. Rice production continues to give way to very intensive vegetable production which has a far higher return, where there is adequate water and good road
access.
The main vegetable crops are white cabbage, flowering cabbage, lettuce, Chinese kale, radish and leaf mustard which grow all the year round. Considerable quantities of string bean, water spinach, cucumber, and many species of Chinese gourd are produced in