A rising tide of destitute farmers

Soon after the end of World War Two, civil war broke out in China. Escaping refugees surged into Hong Kong en masse, and the territory’s population subsequently rose from a mere 600,000 in 1945 to a staggering 2 million in 1950. Some of the refugees were entrepreneurs and urban settlers who would later fuel Hong Kong’s industrial boom. Others who had no money or knew no skills, settled in the New Territories as subsistence farmers.

Increased government emphasis on agriculture

Hong Kong’s countryside is rugged and mountainous, with large swathes of land unsuitable for farming. In the early 1950s, only 13.5% of Hong Kong’s total land area was used for farming, and most of this was made up of paddy fields. Vegetable and livestock production were few. This meager farming production was far from sufficient to meet urban demand, and so Hong Kong’s population relied heavily on imported goods from China. However, the creation of the People’s Republic of China aroused concerns from Hong Kong’s colonial Government about their dependency on such imports. With the urban mouths to feed, immigrant farmers to settle and food security concerns, the Government became increasingly proactive with regards to strengthening Hong Kong’s agriculture.

A philanthropic tradition

“Wealth is a sacred trust to be administered for the good of society”. So uttered Sir Elly Kadoorie, who came to Hong Kong over 130 years ago, in 1880. These words have since become the unofficial motto of the Kadoorie Family who, since the late nineteenth century, have built schools and hospitals throughout Hong Kong, the Mainland, India and the Middle East. Elly’s sons, Lawrence and Horace, understood that the Chinese people were a nation of farmers. When they saw the scale of the Chinese refugee problem in the 1950s, they steered the Family’s philanthropy in a new direction.

The Kadoorie brothers therefore established KAAA in 1951.