PRIMARY PRODUCTION
49
of association; 17 by persons having common bonds of employment; and five by groups each with a common bond of residence.
Land Utilisation
Hong Kong's land area totals 403.8 square miles, of which only 12.4 per cent is used for farming, 76.3 per cent is marginal land with different degrees of sub-grade character, and built-up areas comprise the remaining 11.3 per cent. The need to establish new towns and residential areas on plans that provide for adequate open space, wider roads and public facilities of all kinds, inevitably means encroachment upon agricultural land. The losses, however, are partially offset by more intensive production and by development of marginal land.
Class
Approximate Percentage
area
Remarks
of whole
(square miles)
(i) Built-up (Urban Areas)
•
45.8
11.3
(ii) Woodlands ...
53.3
13.2
Includes roads and railways. Natural and established wood-
lands.
(iii) Grass and scrub lands
235.2
58.3
(iv) Badlands
14.7
3.6
•
(v) Swamp and mangrove lands (vi) Arable
5.0
1.2
45.5
11.3
Natural grass and scrub, includ-
ing Plover Cove reservoir. Stripped of cover. Granite coun- try. Capable of regeneration. Capable of reclamation.
Includes orchards and market
gardens.
(vii) Fish ponds
4.3
11.1
Fresh and brackish water fish
farming.
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 foodstuffs as possible, bearing in mind priorities in land utilisation and the economics of food production in the region.
The principal crops grown are vegetables, flowers, rice, fruit and other field crops. The value of crop production has increased considerably, from $89 million in 1963 to $229 million in 1972, a rise of some 157 per cent. Vegetable production presently accounts for over 78 per cent of the total value, having increased from $58 million in 1963 to $186 million in 1972.
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 Non- sensitive 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 9,319 acres in 1972. Rice production continues to give way to very intensive vegetable production which gives a far higher return, where there is adequate water and good road access.