ENG-1974 — Page 71

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Primary Production

ALTHOUGH only 12 per cent of the total land area is devoted to farming, and less than two per cent of the working population is involved in fishing, Hong Kong is still able to produce a large proportion of her fresh food requirements.

The 1971 census showed that farmers comprised only 2.09 per cent of the total economically active population of Hong Kong, while fisherfolk made up another 1.88 per cent. Hong Kong's fishing fleet catches about 90 per cent of all fresh marine fish eaten in the territory, and local pond fish farmers produce some 8.5 per cent of the freshwater fish consumed. However, agricultural production is limited by the availability of suitable land rather than by numbers of people in the industry. Farmers in the New Territories produce about 45 per cent of the vegetables consumed, some 60 per cent of the total live chicken requirements, and about 15 per cent of all pigs slaughtered.

The sudden increase in Hong Kong's population during the 1950s, due to large scale immigration from China, gave considerable stimulus to agricultural production both because of the increased demand and because many arrivals were skilled farmers. As a result, there was a rapid growth of intensively cultivated vegetable farming, and livestock production also increased greatly.

Progressive developments also took place simultaneously in the local fishing industry. A large fleet of wind-driven junks, which had previously migrated up and down the coast, dependent upon the seasonal winds, was encouraged to become based at Hong Kong and concentrate on supplying the marine food demands of the ter- ritory's expanded population. That ready market stimulated fleet modernisation. With government assistance the mechanisation of the existing fleet was quickly in- itiated, and further impressive advances have since been made in the transition of the fleet from junks to modern boats utilising increasingly sophisticated gear and equipment.

A continued increase in marine fish production is called for to meet expanding demand. The present slow growth rate of supply in terms of total catch, albeit with fewer vessels, indicates that the demersal (bottom) fisheries of the grounds now worked are already being fully exploited to provide maximum sustainable yield. Attention has accordingly been turned towards the potential of the unexploited, or under exploited, pelagic (midwater) fisheries resources of the South China Sea.

Traditional rice cultivation has continued to decrease as vegetable growing has expanded. As the profit margin on rice cultivation has dropped in recent years, much former paddy land around the more remote villages has fallen into disuse and now