Chapter 1042 Industry feeds back agriculture
East African agriculture has developed slowly, and now it has truly closed the gap with European and American countries. Although the output of pesticides and fertilizers is not as good as that of Germany, there is not much difference in quantity compared to other countries. Of course, once It's different when discussing per capita.
After all, the national conditions of countries such as Germany and East Africa are different. East Africa and Tsarist Russia, the United States has a large land area and a lot of available land resources. Britain and France have vast overseas colonies, which can share the pressure of local agricultural development.
Under such circumstances, Germany’s current progress in agricultural technology can be said to be unparalleled in the world. Take potato production as an example. At the beginning of German reunification, grain production was more than 17 million tons. Now It is more than 25 million tons, potato production has increased from more than 20 million tons to more than 40 million tons, and sugar beet production has also increased from more than 20 million tons to more than 30 million tons.
This is obviously due to Germany's concentrated outbreak in the fields of agricultural breeding, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and agricultural machinery. The country's ruling class is mainly the Junker aristocracy. As landlords themselves, they attach great importance to the advancement of agricultural technology.
Currently, Germany ranks first in the world in terms of agricultural yield per acre. The yield per acre is much higher than that of France, which has more fertile land. It is nearly twice that of the United States and East Africa, and more than twice that of Tsarist Russia.
Take the unit output of potatoes as an example. Germany’s potato output per hectare is about 150 quintals. Tsarist Russia ranks second with only more than 80 quintals. France, the United States and East Africa are all in About seventy quintals.
Of course, the weather in Tsarist Russia is indeed suitable for potato production, so it can surpass France, the United States and East Africa. However, the unit output of cereals in Tsarist Russia is far behind other countries. Even East African wheat per hectare is also Around ten quintals, Russia only has six or seven quintals, the United States has more than ten quintals, France is twice that of Russia, and Germany is more than three times that of Tsarist Russia.
Among these countries, the climate in East Africa is the least suitable for wheat production, but with the advancement of agricultural technology, it is still ahead of Russia, and wheat as a crop has already played a large role in East African cereals. Not as good as rice, East African rice production will only be higher.
The average quality of German land is better than that of East Africa among the above-mentioned countries. France’s agricultural natural conditions are the best in Western Europe, especially the land around Paris. Tsarist Russia has a large granary called Ukraine, not to mention the United States. It is rich in various climate types and has high soil fertility.
Therefore, the fundamental reason why Germany crushes other countries in the world in terms of grain yield per acre with not the most superior land is that it has the most advanced agricultural technology in the world at this time.
This has a significant relationship with Germany's industrial development. Take the important agricultural fertilizer potassium salt as an example. In the 1990s, Germany's potassium salt production reached more than millions of tons. At least 10% of the cost of German grain cultivation was Thirty percent is invested in grain cultivation.
This is especially true in the field of agricultural machinery. Even though East Africa has a first-mover advantage in tractors, tractors are not the only type of agricultural machinery. Germany has strong expertise in threshers, seeders, lawn mowers, steam plows, etc. All are in a leading position in the world.
Even the smaller farms in Germany are equipped with at least ten kinds of production machinery, not to mention that Germany is mainly medium and large-scale farms under the Juncker nobles. It can be said that in this era, German agriculture is the The world's benchmark.
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Rhine city.
As for agricultural mechanization, the East African government naturally does not make big moves. However, East Africa is restricted by factors such as the country’s cultivated land area and industrial strength, so the speed of agricultural transfer is not particularly fast.
The Ministry of Agriculture introduced to Ernst the current situation in the agricultural field in East Africa. Agriculture Minister Fingel said: "At present, our country's agricultural machinery technology accumulation in the field of grain agriculture is the same as that of other countries, but these agricultural machinery have been promoted , it takes more effort. ”
“Take the wheat seeder as an example. We have modeled the independent production of this machine after the seeders from Germany and other countries, but our industrial production capacity cannot match. "Compared with other industrial powers." "For example, Germany's industry is stronger than ours, so it produces more planters than ours, but its cultivated land area is much smaller than ours. To put it simply, even if we produce the same amount of planters as Germany, It is impossible to achieve the popularization of seeders across the country. We must produce at least three times more wheat seeders than those in Germany to achieve the same effect.”
"Moreover, the proportion of wheat in my country's planting industry has declined, with rice occupying the first place in cereal planting, and the rice transplanters developed in our country will only be more difficult to roll out than the wheat seeders."
"Of course, the government is currently making great efforts to promote the comprehensive mechanization of agriculture, but the establishment of relevant factories cannot be completed overnight. After all, Germany had a better foundation than us when it was first unified."
"But we We do have unparalleled advantages in tractors and automobiles, which has also led to the rapid rise of my country's agricultural mechanization. In addition to Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, East Africa's agricultural mechanization is also relatively advanced in the world."
The role of tractors in promoting East African agriculture is very significant. In the field of agriculture, tractors can be said to be all-round players. Through various modifications, they can participate in almost most agricultural work, such as farming, sowing, harvesting and other agricultural activities. Tractor is completed as carrier.
Using tractors as a carrier and matching with suitable agricultural tools, you can do a lot of work of specialized agricultural machinery. Therefore, although the comprehensive research and development capabilities of agricultural machinery in the agricultural field of East Africa are temporarily unable to compare with other industrial powers, the utilization efficiency has been greatly improved, and As the saying goes, "good steel is on the edge of the knife."
At the beginning of the 20th century, tractors in various countries were at the peak of the steam age. The annual output of steam tractors in the United States exceeded tens of thousands, while the annual output of internal combustion tractors in East Africa had reached 70,000 units through the First Five-Year Plan.
Due to various restrictions, the efficiency of steam tractors cannot be compared with that of internal combustion tractors. Therefore, although East Africa does not seem to be as blooming as other countries in the comprehensive research and development of agricultural machinery, in fact, because it has chosen the right track, it has rapidly shrunk and differences between other industrialized countries.
And East Africa’s advantages in the field of agricultural machinery research will become greater and greater as time goes by. While other countries are still focusing on steam tractors, East Africa has begun to use internal combustion engine tractors as the carrier to introduce other agricultural machinery. By extension, to give an example of non-agricultural machinery, the most typical example is that the production of armored vehicles in East Africa is mainly completed by tractor factories.
Ernst: "During the First and Second Five-Year Plans, industrial development was the focus of the country. This was also a factor that restricted the speed of agricultural mechanization. After all, the profits of industry are greater and the scale of industry is larger. , the higher the government income, and it is not easy to actually increase the increase in my country's agriculture. No matter how hard you try, it is impossible to increase the area per mu of production too much, even if there are more diversification Without the involvement of fertilizers and pesticides, it is impossible for agriculture to fly into the sky.”
“Of course, agricultural mechanization is an inevitable trend in future agricultural development. Under this premise, the faster the industrial development, the faster the agricultural mechanization. The faster we improve our industrial capabilities, it means we can produce more and better agricultural equipment, so that industry can feed back agriculture. ”
In other words, at the current stage of development in East Africa, although the fundamental status of agriculture as a country will not change, agricultural development cannot exceed the speed of industrial development. Even if East Africa pays more attention to agriculture during the Second Five-Year Plan than during the First Five-Year Plan, , and you can’t invest too much energy.
Because the industry has developed, agricultural mechanization will naturally come naturally. In fact, the feedback of East African industry to agriculture has already begun. However, due to the low level of industrialization in East Africa, the effect is not obvious. Not too fast.
Moreover, agricultural development does not only rely on mechanization, but also depends on technological advances such as pesticides and fertilizers. Although the East African chemical industry has begun to take shape after the development of the First Five-Year Plan period, it really wants to have an impact on agriculture. The huge effect depends on the development level of the chemical industry during the Second Five-Year Plan period.
(End of this chapter)