ENG-1966 — Page 103

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PRIMARY PRODUCTION

gramme of formal training was also carried out in which more than 139 farmers and farmers' sons and daughters received voca- tional training in a wide variety of subjects. Farmers also visited government experimental stations and farming projects.

PRINCIPAL CROPS

Within the last decade there has been a marked change in the farming pattern in Hong Kong. Paddy cultivation was formerly the most important aspect of agriculture in the New Territories but there has been a steady increase in market gardening, and pig and poultry production. Most of this has been at the expense of rice growing land but there is also some development of marginal land. In addition more than 35 per cent of the two-crop paddy land is now used for winter season catch crops. Most of this land formerly remained fallow during the winter season.

The area of land under permanent vegetable cultivation has in- creased from 2,250 acres in 1954 to 8,230 acres in 1966. Six to eight crops of vegetables are harvested annually from intensively culti- vated land. The main crops are white cabbage, flowering cabbage, turnip, leaf mustard, Chinese kale, Chinese lettuce, tomato, water spinach, string bean, watercress, cucumber and Chinese gourd. Other vegetables such as cauliflower, cabbage, and carrots are produced in great quantity during the cooler months and quality is excellent. This intensive production of vegetables takes place on both fertile and comparatively infertile land and is made possible by heavy dressings of manure. The traditional use of nightsoil is being replaced or supplemented by pig and poultry manure, peanut cake, duck feathers, bone meal and compost. The use of artificial fertilizers is increasing, usually in addition to organic manures. The widespread use of insecticides is an important feature of farming, as is the increasing use of selected crop varieties.

Sweet potatoes are grown both for human consumption (the tubers), and for pigfeed (the vines). Some 2,000 acres of drier lands are double-cropped, chiefly for tubers, and a catch crop of sweet potatoes is also grown on over 1,200 acres following the second paddy harvest. With an average yield of 3.5 tons an acre for each crop, and an average market price of $250 a ton, this represents an annual value of over $4 million. About 450 acres of other field