PRIMARY PRODUCTION
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tragic death of a young Gurkha soldier from the disease, which he contracted from a bite inflicted by a rabid dog in his native Nepal. During the eight-month campaign, a total of 28,208 dogs was inoculated against rabies - 34 times the normal figure for a similar period.
All cattle and pigs imported for food also are quarantined on arrival in Hong Kong. Any imported for breeding purposes are subject to strict procedures.
Agricultural Waste Treatment
Streams in the New Territories are still heavily polluted mainly by pig manure and, to a lesser extent, by poultry manure hosed or dumped into watercourses by farmers seeking the easiest and cheapest means of disposal. These streams continued to be the main concern of the recently-established Agricultural Waste Treatment Unit and advice to farmers mainly centred around environmentally-acceptable means of waste disposal.
A large majority of pigs in the New Territories are kept by smaller farmers - mainly with 50 to 100 pigs. These farmers, generally, cannot afford to treat slurry – manure mixed with water - in an acceptable manner. They are therefore advised to keep waste solids as dry as possible from origin to disposal, thereby becoming involved with another important aspect of the Waste Treatment Unit's work finding ways of economically handling, collecting, treating and disposing of animal wastes in solid or partly-solid forms. Experimental work on manure slurry treatment and disposal, continuous-process drying into easily and cleanly-handled manure forms, and handling and transporting animal wastes was extended to include batch-drying into manure form, atmospheric pre-drying to lower the cost of machine drying, and biochemical filter treatment of liquid wastes.
Complementing these activities were selecting sites for collecting and storing manure, putting up the first structures for storing solid and liquid manures, and investigating outlets for the liquid and solid end-products of treated manures.
Fishing Industry
Marine fish form one of Hong Kong's most important primary products. More than 150 fish species of commercial importance frequent the waters of the adjacent con- tinental shelf. Most important of these, in terms of landed weight, are golden thread, scads, lizardfish, big-eyes, sardines, conger-pike eel and croakers.
The total quantity of fish and fishery products has increased from 127,134 tonnes (valued at $349 million) in 1971 to 158,324 tonnes (valued at $733 million) in 1977. This is an increase of 25 per cent by quantity and 110 per cent by value. In 1977, marine fish landings amounted to 96,846 tonnes at a wholesale value of $390 million. This represented 92 per cent of the local consumer demand.
The fishing fleet consists of 5,500 vessels, of which 93 per cent is mechanised. There are four major types of fishing in terms of gear: trawling, lining, gill-netting and purse- seining. Trawling is the most important, accounting for 65 per cent or 62,950 tonnes of marine fish landed in 1977. An estimated 35,700 fishermen work the fleet and a large proportion of the vessels are owner-operated.
Pond fish farming is the most important culture activity. Fish ponds totalling 1,874 hectares are located in the New Territories, principally in the Yuen Long district.
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