ENG-1973 — Page 90

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Primary Production

ALTHOUGH only 12 per cent of Hong Kong's 404 square miles total land area is devoted to farming and less than two per cent of the population is involved in fishing, the territory is still able to produce a large proportion of its fresh food requirements.

The 1971 census shows that farmers and their dependants comprise only 2.48 per cent of the population, while fisherfolk make up another 1.53 per cent of the total. Despite these low percentages, farmers of the New Territories usually produce about 45 per cent of vegetables consumed locally, nearly 70 per cent of total live chicken requirements and about 15 per cent of all pigs slaughtered. Hong Kong's fishing fleet catches about 90 per cent of all marine fish eaten in the territory.

However, 1973 was the wettest year on record in Hong Kong and the heavy rainfall reduced local vegetable, flower and fruit harvests. There was also a world- wide shortage of feed grains early in 1973 which pushed up local feed prices, so re- ducing production by pig and poultry farmers for the first time in many years.

The sudden increase in Hong Kong's population during the 1950s, due to massive immigration from China, gave considerable stimulus to agricultural production as many of the new arrivals were farmers. There was also a great demand for food, and these changes resulted in a rapid growth of small, intensively cultivated vegetable and livestock farms. Traditional rice cultivation was less profitable, and those farmers who retained rice fields tended to diversify production by planting vegetables after the harvesting of the second rice crop.

The number employed in farming and fishing reached its peak during the mid- 1960s, but the attraction of nearby industrial satellite towns, offering higher wages, has led to a reduction in the number of these workers over the past five years.

Hong Kong's rapid industrialisation has brought increasing prosperity to its more than four million inhabitants. But, with few natural resources manufacturing industries depend heavily on imported raw materials.

Administration and Services

The Agriculture and Fisheries Department concerns itself with optimum land utilisation and provides technical, extension and advisory services to farmers. It also deals with the economic, social and technological development of Hong Kong fish- eries, especially those aspects which directly involve fishermen, and the administrative organisation of co-operative societies of all types. The conservation of water and soil through afforestation of bare, eroded hillsides and catchment areas, is also an im- portant aspect of the department's work. Afforestation is principally undertaken by

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