Chapter 80 Agriculture
With the vigorous development of the "purge" movement, a large amount of land has been vacant. In the future, with the increase of immigrants, all of it will inevitably be developed.
The current colonial agricultural system in East Africa is still relatively chaotic. Because the colonial population is too dispersed, the cultivation of crops is also very different.
The staple foods include wheat, rice, and corn. Recently, the East African colonies are also trying to introduce millet cultivation in Kenya. This is what Ernst emphasized. After all, the climate in Kenya, especially the farther north, becomes drier, and millet It is a very drought tolerant crop.
In the past life, East Africa was an important millet-producing area. This place is very suitable for millet cultivation. After all, East Africa has a tropical grassland climate, which is most suitable for growing "grass", and millet came from the domestication of Setaria spp.
These are food crops, and cash crops are even more confusing. The East African colonies are located in the tropics, and basically all tropical plants can be grown, such as sisal, coffee, rubber, cocoa, and all kinds of vegetables and fruits...
If East Africa Colonies only consider the local food and clothing problem, so they can grow whatever they want. However, as an area where Ernst will vigorously develop in the future, the East African colonies must prepare for industrialization after all.
If agriculture wants to pave the way for industrialization, it must first carry out modernization reforms and give full play to its scale advantage.
To put it bluntly, East African agriculture has to compete in the market to earn a lot of real money and accumulate the original capital of East Africa.
At present, the best template in Ernst's hands is Argentina. Argentina is a typical country that started from agriculture, regardless of the various problems in its subsequent industrialization.
Argentina has achieved great success simply by developing agriculture, and East Africa and Argentina also have similarities. They are both sparsely populated and covered with grasslands.
It’s just that one is located in the temperate and subtropical zones, and the other is in the tropics, and the land in the East African colonies is only slightly weaker than the black soil in Argentina in terms of fertility.
The precipitation of the two is about the same. In northern Argentina, the rainfall can reach about 1500mm, while in the south, it is only about 600mm. In East Africa, it decreases from east to west, reaching a peak in the Great Lakes region. The average rainfall in the entire region is Between 600mm and 1500mm.
This level is not bad in the world. Intuitive data: the annual precipitation in the North China Plain is about 600mm, and it is concentrated in July and August.
There are two rainy seasons in East Africa, the light rainy season from November to December and the heavy rainy season from April to May.
The main reason why the East African colonies focused on developing agriculture was that the cost of developing agriculture was relatively low. As long as the land was reasonably planned and some production tools improved, the requirements for technology and personnel were not as high as those of industry.
If you want to develop agriculture, adopting a "small farmer economy" will definitely be a dead end in this era of law of the jungle. If you are unable to protect yourself, you will be unable to develop, and will eventually be defeated by the low-cost advantage of large-scale agricultural production.
The distinctive feature of capitalist agriculture is the centralized management of land. The most prominent contemporary ones are the "Prussian model" and the "American model".
The essence is to concentrate land in the hands of a few people, conduct unified management, impact the market with scale advantages, and capture the market to gain huge profits.
The land property rights in the East African colonies were directly in Ernst's hands, so there was no need for top-down reforms like Prussia.
But Ernst himself did not abuse black people, so it was different from American manors.
In this case, Ernst just adopted the model of a large farm.
All the land in East Africa was Ernst's private property. The immigrants had no property rights and were essentially agricultural workers on the farm.
The way to get remuneration is naturally to work more and get more, and to work less and get less.
Currently, the East African colonies are directly divided into several large agricultural areas based on climate and rainfall, and the same crops are uniformly grown in the areas. Wheat cultivation is the main area in southern Kenya, including the Great Lakes District in the west, the Solon Lake District, the North Malawi Lake District, the East Malawi Lake District, and the Central Plateau District.
It is determined by the eating habits and market demand of immigrants. Whether they are immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire or immigrants from the Far East and North China, they all have the habit of eating pasta, and the main market for food sales in Europe is naturally wheat-based. .
The three coastal areas in the east and the coastal plains of eastern Kenya are dominated by rice cultivation.
East of the savannah area and the Great Lakes area, the northern plateau area, and north of Kenya develop millet and livestock industries.
Wheat and animal husbandry were the main means of income generation in the East African colonies in addition to cash crops.
Both of these have a deep market in Europe. Even if Europe cannot squeeze in, the Arabs will still take advantage of it. After all, most Arabs rely on commerce and nomadism to survive, and their own output is too little.
The Far East is not among Ernst's considerations. The main reason is that the Far East is not rich at present, and it is a purely agricultural production area. It is also poor and has huge market competition.
In the previous life, the most popular crops in East Africa were probably corn and cassava, but Ernst chose wheat to develop East Africa.
Although corn and cassava are high-yield, they both have certain shortcomings. The cost of processing is higher than that of wheat. Moreover, due to the eating habits of immigrants and the European market, they still focus on wheat cultivation.
Cash crops, the largest cash crop in the East African colonies is naturally sisal.
In addition to sisal, Ernst plans to plan five important cash crops: oil crop planting, rubber plantation planting, tea planting, cotton planting, and coffee planting.
In addition to these major economic crops, there are also advantageous crops such as cloves and pyrethrum.
In the previous life, East Africa was an important cotton-producing area in Africa. It was planted in all countries in East Africa, so cotton planting was not a problem, and the market was relatively easy to find. With Germany as its back, you could still grow it on one-third of an acre of land in the German region. Digested.
There are more choices of oil crops. Peanuts, sesames, soybeans... and other traditional oil crops can be grown. East Africa also has castor and sunflower seeds...
The main rubber plantations It is planned to be located in coastal areas and areas around the Great Lakes area with relatively abundant water.
Tea is mainly grown in some mountainous and high-altitude areas. Just plant a large amount of black tea as in the previous life. Europeans can't tell the difference anyway.
These are crops that require concentrated production, and the rest will not be discussed in detail. The land and climate conditions in East Africa are simply too superior.
In the previous life, there was a flower industry in East Africa, as well as various tropical fruits and vegetables. Of course, these Ernsts were also greedy, but the current technical level is not up to it, and large-scale short-term transportation cannot be achieved.
As for animal husbandry, Ernst has no way to directly develop it on a large scale in East Africa. The entire region of East Africa is suitable for the development of animal husbandry. The problem is that the preservation technology is too slow.
Unless Ernst initially processes meat in East Africa and makes various pickled foods, this will take time.
(End of this chapter)