ENG-1974 — Page 83

46

PRIMARY PRODUCTION

18 by persons having common bonds of employment; and six by groups each with a common bond of residence.

Land Utilisation

Hong Kong's land area totals 404.3 square miles, of which only 12 per cent is used for farming, 76.2 per cent is marginal land with different degrees of sub- grade character, and built-up areas comprise the remaining 11.8 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 development of marginal land.

Class

Approximate Percentage

area =

Remarks

(square miles)

of whole

(i) Built-up (urban areas)

47.6

11.8

(ii) Woodlands ...

49.1

12.1

Includes roads and railways. Natural and established wood-

lands.

(iii) Grass and scrub lands

237.3

58.7

(iv) Badlands

16.8

4.2

(v) Swamp and mangrove lands

5

1.2

(vi) Arable

43.1

10.7

Natural grass and scrub, includ-

ing Plover Cove Reservoir. Stripped of cover. Granite coun- try. Capable of regeneration. Capable of reclamation.

Includes orchards and market

gardens.

(vii) Fish ponds ...

5.4

1.3

Fresh and brackish water fish

farming.

Agricultural Industry

The government's policy is to foster the growth of the agricultural industry in Hong Kong to make the territory as self-sufficient in foodstuffs as possible, bearing in mind priorities in land utilisation and the economics of food production in the region.

Principal crops are vegetables, flowers, rice, fruit and other field crops. The value of crop production has increased, considerably, from $89 million in 1963 to $261 million in 1974, a rise of 175 per cent. Vegetable production presently accounts for more than 80 per cent of the total value, having increased from $58 million in 1963 to $209 million in 1974.

Rice is the staple food of the southern Chinese. Two crops of rice a year can be grown on land where water is adequate. The normal yield from an acre of two-crop rice land is about two tons, or up to five tons with high fertiliser use and high yielding strains. The acreage of rice land has dropped from 23,353 acres in 1954 to 3,710 in 1974. Rice production continues to give way to intensive vegetable production, which gives a far higher return, where there is adequate water and good road access.

The main vegetable crops are white cabbage, flowering cabbage, lettuce, Chinese kale, radish, watercress, leaf mustard, spring onion and chive which grow all the year round with the peak production period in the cooler months. Considerable quantities of water spinach, string bean, Chinese spinach, green cucumber and many other