ENG-1987 — Page 123

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潢業

Primary Production

WORKING on a very small agricultural base, Hong Kong's farmers produce mainly high-value foods to cater to the local consumers' preference for fresh, rather than frozen or chilled, foods.

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Only about nine per cent of the total land area is suitable for crop farming, and about two per cent of the work force is engaged in primary production - agriculture and fisheries. Each day, the people consume about 1 000 tonnes of rice, 1 300 tonnes of vegetables, 10 300 pigs, 500 head of cattle, 330 tonnes of poultry, 430 tonnes of fish and 1 200 tonnes of fruit. Much of this is imported, but Hong Kong farmers help to satisfy some of the demand.

In terms of quantity, local farmers produce about 34 per cent of fresh vegetables, 39 per cent of live poultry, 17 per cent of live pigs, and 12 per cent of freshwater fish. The fishing fleet of some 4 700 vessels supplies about 86 per cent of all live and fresh marine fish eaten.

The locally-produced foods are generally of a higher quality than the same type of imported foods and thus fetch higher prices in the markets.

Based on these figures, Hong Kong people, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, are among the world's highest consumers of protein.

Foodstuffs account for about 12 per cent of Hong Kong's imports from China. Local production, which complements rather than competes with imports, is aimed at maintain- ing some degree of self-sufficiency with respect to highly perishable foodstuffs.

Agriculture and Fisheries Department

The Agriculture and Fisheries Department encourages the productive use of agricultural land in the rural areas. It assists in the development of agriculture, especially in the form of irrigation projects. New concepts, techniques and material input to the farming and fishing industries are evaluated and actively promoted. Controls are exercised to prevent the introduction and spread of plant and livestock pests and diseases.

Investigatory programmes of the department cover crops, pest control, animal health and husbandry and fisheries. Experiments are conducted on government experimental stations to improve the quality and yield of vegetables, flowers and fruit. The department advises livestock farmers on disease prevention and control, and modern methods of animal production, supplies good quality seeds and breeding stocks of pigs and poultry, and provides an artificial insemination service for pigs.

Fisheries studies are conducted on marine resources, aquaculture and the environmental impact of development activities on fisheries. In marine resources, emphasis is placed on optimising production from the fisheries resources exploited by the local fishing fleet and investigating the development potential of under-exploited resources.

Aquaculture studies are concerned with the development of more efficient culture systems to increase productivity of the marine and pond fish culture sectors. Hydrographic

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