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Governor visits pig farm and experimental station
The Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten, today (Wednesday) visited two major out-stations of the Agriculture and Fisheries Department (AFD) and saw some specialised aspects of the work of the department.
Accompanied by AFD's Director Dr Lawrence Lee, Mr Patten began his itinerary at the Ta Kwu Ling Pig Breeding Centre, where he was greeted by senior officers of the department.
At the Centre, he was briefed by Dr Lee on AFD's diversified work which could be grouped under six programme areas, namely agriculture, animal and plant regulation, fisheries, conservation and country parks, wholesale food markets and technical services.
During a brief tour of the Centre, the Governor learnt that the staff were devoted to testing and improving husbandry techniques for local adoption, and developing high quality breeding stock for the local pig industry to improve productivity.
He was impressed by the pig-on-litter husbandry method when being shown the demonstration pig pens. The method was introduced and improved by AFD to assist farmers to solve the livestock waste disposal problem.
Under this system, pigs are raised on sawdust bedding which provides the environment to decompose the pig waste generated. There is neither effluent nor odour discharged and the used sawdust is re-cycled as soil conditioner and organic fertiliser for plants.
The Governor then proceed to Tai Lung Experimental Station where he was briefed on adaptive studies and the Accredited Farm Scheme.
The Experimental Station is AFD's main centre for horticultural and crop investigatory work. Consisting of established orchards, fields, greenhouses and laboratories, the station is also used for introducing new technology to local farmers in order to facilitate production and improve productivity.
Mr Patten showed much interest in the Accredited Farm Scheme, which was jointly implemented by AFD and the Vegetable Marketing Organisation (VMO) last November,