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Saturday, March 2, 1974
KADOORIE AGRICULTURAL AID LOAN FUND
The Finance Committee has approved the extension for a further
five years of an interet-free loan of $500,000 to the Kadoorie Agricultural
Aid Loan Fund.
A spokesman for the Agriculture and Fisheries Department explained
that because of rising costs of farm equipment and feedingstuffs, the total
amount of money on loan to individual farmers rose from $1.8 million in
1968/69 to $3.2 million at the end of last year.
The purpose of the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Loan Fund is to make
loans available to farmers at low interest rates for improving livestock,
developing land and fish ponds, and purchasing livestock feed, building
materials, soeds, fertilizers, pesticides, machinery, irrigation equipment,
and various other farm requirements.
The cost of farm production has beer on the increase in recent
years due to the rising costs of labour, feeds, fertilizers and veterinary
medicinos. Mechanization and new farming techniques are being adopted at
an increasing rate by the New Territories farmers in order to reduce labour
costs, but this requires considerable capital investment on equipment such
as rotary cultivators and sprinkler irrigation, which were almost unknown
here until introduced by the Agriculture and Fisheries Department six or
seven years ago,
The spokesman ever.