Kadoorie Farm
HF: The Kadoorie brothers, Sir Horace (right) and Lord Lawrence (left), sowed the seeds of the Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden (KFBG) when they founded the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association (KAAA) in 1951.
In 1941 there were 1.25 million people living in Hong Kong. By the end of the Japanese occupation in 1945 the population had shrunk to about 600,000. In same year the flood of immigrants fleeing the Civil War on the Mainland began. By th and Lawrence Kadoorie, wanted to help these destitute immigrants become self supporting and independent; they wanted to help them regain their dignity and find security in their new lives in Hong Kong.
Since most of the Chinese immigrants were farmers, an ambitious agricultural project was concieved, thus, the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association (KAAA) was formed on 28 September 1951. The founders were Horace and Lawrence Kadoorie, Norman Wright and Woo Ting Sang.
The KAAA’s aim was to encourage a philosophy of ‘Helping People Help Themselves.’ Those in need were given training, provided with agricultural inputs and interest free loans to set them on the path to becoming independent.
The K.A.A.A gave as gifts a total of 3,367 cattle to the villagers of Hong Kong.
In 1956, the KAAA established an experimental and extension farm at Pack Ngau Shek (the present site of KFBG) as a centre to demonstrate effective and profitable crop production and animal husbandry techniques to improve livestock breeds and to train local farmers and Hong Kong-based Gurkha soldiers in farming so that they could have income when they returned home to Nepal. Special hybrids of pigs and chickens were selectively bred, and these made a big contribution towards food security. The result was a revitalisation, not only of the local economy, but also of the hopes and dreams of the people of the New Territories and Outlying Islands. The gardens of Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden were planned and planted from the 1960’s.vllages
Many aid projects were set up, which involved understanding the situation and needs of individual families and villages and helping people where possible. Donations of training, livestock, houses, pig pens and cattle sheds were made to families and paths, roads, bridges, dams and jettys built for communities.
Source: kfbg.org
Photo Gallery from Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden
To assist the needy widows of New Territories to achieve a better standard of living the K.A.A.A. gave each widow 20 chickens (2 cocks and 18 hens).
One of the spectacular successes of the pig breeding programme at the farm was the development of an improved strain of the local Fa Yuen breed known as Pak Ngau Shek Special Key 7.
Opening Ceremony of Har Tse village orchard
Images of Kadoorie Farm
A view of the Farm at Pak Ngau Shek (ca 1957) Source: hkbg.org
Birds Eye View of the Farm from Tai To Yan. Source kfbg.org
Source: Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden
This article was first posted on 18th June 2025.
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