ENG-1977 — Page 88

PRIMARY PRODUCTION

Land Usage

51

Hong Kong's land area totals 1,052 square kilometres. Only 10.6 per cent is used for farming, 75.8 per cent is marginal land with different degrees of sub-grade character, and built-up areas comprise the remaining 13.6 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 on agricultural land. The losses, however, are partially offset by more intensive production and by development of marginal land. The New Territories Administration is responsible for land tenure and certain aspects of land development in the New Territories.

Class

Approximate

(square Percentage kilometres)

area

=

of whole

Remarks

(i) Built-up (urban areas)

143

(ii) Woodlands

125

(iii) Grass and scrub lands

616

(iv) Badlands

44

(v) Swamp and mangrove lands (vi) Arable

93

(vii) Fish ponds

939 # 28 a

13.6 11.9 58.6

Includes roads and railways.

Natural and established woodlands. Natural grass and scrub, including

4.1

12

1.2

Plover Cove Reservoir.

Capable of regeneration.

Capable of reclamation.

Stripped of cover. Granite country.

8.8

Includes orchards and market

gardens.

19

1.8

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 usage and the economics of food production in the region.

Common crops are vegetables, flowers, rice, fruit and other field crops. The value of crop production has increased from $89 million in 1963 to $326 million in 1977 – a rise of 266 per cent. Vegetable production accounts for more than 85 per cent of the total value, having increased from $58 million in 1963 to $279 million in 1977.

Rice is the staple food of the southern Chinese. Two crops of rice a year can be grown on land with adequate water. The normal yield from half a hectare of two-crop rice land is about two tonnes or up to five tonnes with high fertiliser use and high- yielding strains. The amount of rice land has dropped from 9,450 hectares in 1954 to 330 hectares in 1977. 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. They 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 species of Chinese gourds are produced in summer. A wide range of exotic temperate vegetables, including tomato, sweet pepper, cabbage, celery, head lettuce, cauliflower and carrot are grown in winter. Straw mushroom also is produced, using industrial cotton waste as the growing medium. Among the common types of flowers, gladiolus