ENG-1970 — Page 91

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Primary Production

HONG KONG'S remarkable industrial expansion, extensive and vigorous though it has been, has by no means extinguished the farming and fishing industries. Indeed, the continuing vitality of the farmers and fishermen is well demonstrated by the way in which they have adapted their operations to meet changing con- ditions.

The inflow of immigrants from China in the nineteen-fifties had a profound effect upon the countryside as well as the town. The growing urban demand for farm produce provided the incentive for those immigrants who wished to continue a farming life. There was, therefore, an increase in the number of immigrants renting land for intensive vegetable production or poultry farming, but a steady reduction in the number of people growing rice on their own land. At the same time rice farmers have tended to diversify production by planting vegetables after the harvesting of the second rice crop. These trends, and comparable improvements in the fish- ing industry, are in line with the government policy of stimulating the production of food where this is clearly the best use to which land or sea can be put.

LAND UTILISATION

Of the 398 square miles in the Colony, only 13 per cent is being used for farming; 77 per cent of the total area is marginal land, in different degrees of subgrade character and the built-up areas comprise the remaining 10 per cent. The need to establish new towns and residential areas on plans that provide for adequate open space, wider roads and public facilities of all kinds, inevitably means encroachment upon agricultural land. The losses, however, are partially offset by more intensive production and by develop- ment of marginal land.