ENG-1959 — Page 113

PRIMARY PRODUCTION AND MARKETING

91

Supervisors, two Overseers, a Foreman, fifteen Forest Rangers, twenty Foresters and 141 Forest Guards.

AGRICULTURE

Rice. The area under two-crop paddy has fallen from 20,191 acres in 1954 to 18,980 acres in 1959. This land has not gone out of production but is now being used for permanent vegetable cultivation. A further area of 2,915 acres is used for one-crop brackish water paddy and 225 acres for one-crop upland paddy. On a milling percentage of 68, a total of 21,288 metric tons of rice was produced in 1959 at an average price of $59.00 per picul; the money value of the crop was $20,761,547. The average yield of rice from one acre of two-crop paddy land is about 1.1 metric tons. With seed of approved varieties, good irrigation and the use of fertilizers, production reaches 1.5 metric tons an acre on average land and up to 1.8 metric tons on better soils.

Vegetables. The permanent vegetable area has increased from 2,254 acres in 1954 to 3,905 acres in 1959. This increase of 1,651 acres is due mainly to the fact that 1,211 acres of rice land have gone over to vegetable culture, and the further development of 440 acres of marginal land. An additional area of approximately 950 acres of two-crop paddy land is used for the cultivation of European vegetables after the harvest of the second rice crop.

Six to eight crops of Chinese vegetables can be harvested annually. During 1959, 1,507,869.51 piculs of vegetables were sold through the Vegetable Marketing Organization at a value of $33,808,230. The main varieties are white cabbage, flowering cabbage, turnips, leaf mustard, Chinese kale, Chinese lettuce, tomatoes, water spinach, string beans, watercress and cucumbers. During the cool months cauliflower, cabbage, lettuce and tomatoes are produced in quantity and are of excellent quality. Further details concerning vegetable production are given below under Marketing.

Sweet Potatoes. Two crops of tubers on approximately 2,732 acres are harvested annually and the average yield per annum is about 14 tons per acre. On an average market price of $18.00 per picul the annual value of the crop is approximately $11,566,195. An additional area of 5,694 acres of paddy fallow