Redressing the balance — The problem of agricultural wastes in Hong Kong

Abstract

In the past, farming has always managed to achieve a balance between the production of animal wastes and the demand for such wastes as manure for arable cultivation. Intensive farming upsets the balance either by overproduction of animal wastes or overdependence on artificial fertilizers. Animal rearing in the New Territories of Hong Kong is such an example where market demands for locally produced meat have led to intensive animal rearing without locally available means of beneficial reuse of the waste. Gross pollution of streams and coastal waters has resulted. The permanent solution must be to redress the balance between the two major types of agricultural activity.