African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1372: Plain Province

However, East Africa obviously cannot return to the slavery era, which has led to the slowdown of many important projects in East Africa.

Yarsd continued, "Through regional water transfer, water resources can be distributed more evenly, expanding the boundaries of the empire's agriculture and ecology. This should be considered open source."

"In the terminal water use area, we use technical means to control water consumption and improve water use efficiency, which is saving money."

"We will use the three southern provinces as experimental areas to conduct experimental exploration of regional water diversion projects. By then, a powerful southern city cluster will be formed from Upington City to Kimberley and Bloemfontein, and then to Otto City and Gaborone, and the new Hamburg Port City in the east of the Drakensberg Mountains. Maputo will become a new pole of the imperial economy."

After discussing water-saving agriculture, the main discussion among East African governments in the agricultural sector is comprehensive land management.

This topic mainly includes three aspects: first, soil improvement in cultivated areas, second, soil and water conservation in pastoral areas, and last, protection of ecological boundaries.

Minister Berkeley of the Ministry of Land and Resources said: "The empire has more than 2 billion acres of arable land, but such a large amount of arable land has also had a profound impact on our ecological environment."

"As for the problems in the cultivated land area, unreasonable development and use have led to a decline in soil fertility, a drop in grain production, and increasingly prominent problems such as soil compaction and salinization. It has even caused related natural disasters in some areas, such as sandstorms and dust."

"So in response to this, the Ministry of Land and Resources believes that some unreasonable farming areas should be eliminated and returned to grassland, forest, or even lakes and wetlands."

In addition to considering the ecological perspective, the Ministry of Land and Resources also took into account the current needs of East Africa's economic development. With international food prices continuing to be low, there is really no need for East Africa to further expand its arable land area. Instead, it should be reduced.

Berkeley went on to say: "For the country's arable land, scientific management methods and planting patterns should also be developed, combined with local actual conditions and adapted to local conditions."

"This time we are focusing on soil improvement. Although East Africa has a large area of ​​arable land, the quality of the land, or its fertility, is not high in the world."

"Although we have carried out soil improvement work in the past, due to insufficient knowledge, lack of experience, slow theoretical development and other reasons, we did not achieve very good results."

"Therefore, in order to promote high-quality development in the agricultural sector by taking advantage of the new economic development period of the Fifth Five-Year Plan, we must pay more attention to science and experiments..."

Ernst agrees with this point. He said: "In the past, the economic development of the empire was relatively rough. In order to increase the speed and quantity, a lot of practical problems were ignored."

"By the 55th stage, the nature of our country's economy had undergone earth-shaking changes. Further crude and barbaric development would not only fail to play a positive role in the national economy, but would also lay huge hidden dangers for the future."

"Therefore, starting from the Fifth Five-Year Plan, my country's economic development should shift to refinement, and the government should be more comprehensive when considering issues, rather than ignoring other issues for the sake of economic development as it did in the past."

……

Early 1921.

Following the conclusion of the East African government's economic development conference, East Africa's fifth five-year plan officially kicked off in rural areas.

This time, the reform in the agricultural sector mainly started from state-owned farms, plantations and other production units in East Africa.

Since the opening of the market, rural areas in East Africa have also undergone tremendous changes, the most important of which is that a large amount of land has been contracted out to private individuals, especially for cash crops.

Cash crops are difficult to manage and cannot be fully mechanized, so many cash crop growing areas are leased by East African governments to individuals, companies or rural cooperatives.

The result of this is that East Africa's control over rural areas has been greatly weakened, or the administration has withdrawn significantly from the field of agricultural production.

Except for food crops and some cash crops, semi-privatization is very serious in the agricultural sector in East Africa. The reason for this is semi-privatization, because the ownership of the land is still in the hands of the East African government.

In Ernst's philosophy, land cannot be completely privatized, nor can it be completely nationalized. Going in either extreme direction is not in line with the doctrine of the mean.

Of course, from the perspective of historical experience, the land is constantly swinging back and forth between these two directions, and Ernst's historical experience is naturally derived from the five thousand years of historical experience of the Far Eastern Empire.

For example, in the slavery era, the well-field system prevailed in the Far Eastern Empire, the fubing system in the Northern and Southern Dynasties and the early Tang Dynasty, the weisuo system in the early Ming Dynasty, and the Tianchao Tianmu System of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom...

This cycle, to a certain extent, explains the spiral nature of history.

Therefore, during Ernst's administration, East Africa's economic field also changed according to this law. From the complete nationalization of land in the last century to the large-scale emergence of the land contract system today, it reflects Ernst's governing philosophy.

After the large-scale emergence of land contracting, East African governments still control a large amount of arable land resources, and in some areas, especially in the fields of grain cultivation and some strategic agricultural materials production, nationalized farms and plantations are still widely present.

This puts the East African government in a position where it can attack or defend in the field of agricultural development, thus maintaining a balanced area of ​​national agricultural development.

Plain Province.

As a relatively young province in East Africa, agriculture in Plains Province is mainly based on state-owned farms.

After nearly three decades of development, Plains Province has now become a new agricultural production base in East Africa, especially in terms of rice planting area, where it has an absolute advantage.

Plains Province was the first region in East Africa to pilot agricultural mechanization. In addition, it joined East Africa relatively late, so its agriculture is full of the shadows of various government organization plans.

“Around the Limpopo River and other rivers, the Plains Province has become a new agricultural production base in the country, especially in terms of commercial grains, and has an important influence on the national food market.”

"In 1920, the number of state-owned farms in our province reached , making it the region with the highest degree of agricultural nationalization in the country, and also a large-scale modern agricultural demonstration area in the empire."

"The degree of mechanization in the Plains Province ranks first among all provinces in the empire. It is the first region to complete agricultural mechanization."

"During the 5th Five-Year Plan, our province will further respond to the policy call of the central government, promote the comprehensive management of rivers such as the Limpopo River, carry out scientific planning of the province's land, maintain ecological balance, and achieve sustainable development..."

Senior official of Plain Province, Saitlu, spoke eloquently in front of reporters as the implementation of the East African government's agricultural development policy during the 5th Five-Year Plan period began.

As a major province in East Africa where the agricultural state-owned economy occupies a dominant position, Plains Province naturally became the focus of this visit. "Mr. Setru, the world is now in an era of industrialization, and Plains Province is a typical agricultural province. I wonder if over-emphasizing the development of agriculture will have an impact on the future development of Plains Province?" The reporter of the National Agricultural Newspaper asked Setru.

In response to this question, Setru said: "Mr. Reporter, you also mentioned that our Plain Province is an agricultural production area designated by the state, which means that our province is destined to have a different development positioning from other provinces."

"Therefore, the mission of Pingyuan Province is first to ensure the agricultural production tasks assigned by the state, thereby stabilizing domestic food prices and making positive contributions to ensuring that the people have enough food to eat. I think there is nothing more important than ensuring that people have enough food to eat."

“Also, our province’s unique provincial situation in the Plains has also made our province strive to develop in the direction of the Great Lakes agricultural base.”

"The advantage of Pingyuan Province is agriculture. We have the only black soil plain in the country, and black soil is a relatively scarce resource for agricultural development in the world."

"For example, Eastern European regions such as Ukraine, the central United States, the northeast of the Far East Empire, and Argentina. These four countries have rich black soil resources, which makes their agriculture famous around the world."

"Although the black soil area in the Plains Province cannot be compared with the above-mentioned regions, it is also the largest distribution area of ​​black soil in the empire."

"In addition, our province has two advantages. One is that it is close to the sea, which makes it very convenient for us to export grain. The second is that it is a plain, which makes it the first region in the country to achieve agricultural mechanization."

"At the same time, one thing that should be noted is that the development history of Plain Province is short, so the population of our province is relatively small, which is also an important reason why Plain Province can become the production base of the Empire's commodity grains."

The East African Plains Province was established after the South African War, and it has only been 30 years since then. Moreover, due to the promotion of mechanization, the agricultural population in the Plains Province is not large.

Therefore, although Pingyuan Province is an agricultural province, its vast land and sparse population make agricultural development here profitable.

Therefore, Setru said: "In summary, although industrial development has become the main direction of breakthrough for countries around the world."

"For example, if East Africa had not completed industrialization rapidly in the short 30 years from the 1990s to now, the upper limit of East Africa's development would have been no more than the current level of Brazil."

"Obviously, industry played an important role in the empire becoming one of the world's great powers, but the important contribution of agriculture to the empire cannot be ignored either."

"Under certain circumstances, agricultural development can also drive a country's development. The most typical example is Argentina. Argentina's industry is not well developed, but looking at the development of agriculture, this has made Argentina one of the fastest-growing countries at the beginning of this century."

Here Setru takes Argentina as an example, because Argentina is a typical country that relies on agriculture to get rich. At this time, Argentina's economic level is not even worse than other industrial powers.

"Mr. Setru, please allow me to interrupt. Argentina's agricultural conditions can be said to be the best in the world. Can the Plains Province be compared with Argentina?" the reporter asked.

Setru said bluntly: "Apart from the difference in area, our Plain Province and Argentina can only be said to have their own strengths. For example, Argentina has more abundant water resources than us, but our mechanization level is higher. Argentina has the support of the European market, and we also have the support of the national market."

The reporter said: "But among Argentina's exports, dairy and livestock products are the main ones and have a higher value, while the Plains Province is good at growing grains, but international grain prices have been at a low level for a long time, and input costs are also higher."

In response to the reporter's question, Setru did not refute. He said: "There is indeed a big gap between us and Argentina, but from the perspective of economic average level, the two are actually comparable. After all, Argentina has a population of nearly 10 million, while our province has less than 1 million people."

"Besides, due to the agricultural development mission, our province's freedom is obviously not as good as Argentina's. It is already the limit for us to develop to this point today."

“Of course, our province is also promoting industrial development as much as possible, especially the provincial capital Xinxiang, and the largest city in the province, Inhambane.”

Inhambane was an important seaport city in Mozambique in the past and is now one of the largest cities along the coastline from Beira to Maputo in East Africa.

"Inhambane City now has a population of over 200,000, and its industrial level ranks in the upper middle level in the country."

“So, in addition to the development of the agricultural sector, our province will further promote the development of the industrial sector in Xinxiang, the provincial capital, and Inhambane, the largest city in the province.”

“Especially Inhambane, our province will focus on making it one of the industrial centers in the region and form a strong industrial chain in the fields of agricultural machinery, food processing, etc.”

In fact, although Plains Province is a major agricultural province, it is also one of the provinces with the highest level of urbanization in East Africa.

In 1920, the urbanization level of Plains Province exceeded percent, with one-third of the province's population living in the two cities of Xinxiang and Inhambane. In addition, a large number of people lived in other towns in the province.

The reason for this result is that the plain province implements a large-scale agricultural production model with a high degree of mechanization, which requires only a relatively small population to manage large tracts of land.

Of course, if Plains Province wants to develop, it must rely on the influx of foreign population, because Plains Province has a short history, and many of the current population in Plains Province were migrated from other regions by the East African government.

Saitlu said: "The Plains Province attaches great importance to the development of industry and agriculture. While ensuring the completion of the national agricultural tasks, we are also actively supporting the development of industry, commerce and the service industry."

"During the 5th Five-Year Plan, our province will further promote the intensive, diversified and sustainable development of the agricultural sector."

"Build a number of new water conservancy facilities to further improve the basic conditions in the province, ensure stable water supply for industry, agriculture and domestic use, and reduce the occurrence of flood disasters."

"At the same time, the ecology of the Limpopo River Basin will be maintained and transformed to reduce soil erosion and the emergence and development of desertification problems."

The Limpopo River originates from the South African plateau, but the area it mainly benefits is the Plains Province. As for the upper reaches, due to the small amount of water, it is not worthy of too much attention, so the Plains Province is also the region that attaches the most importance to the ecological environment of the Limpopo River.

Because the upper reaches of the Limpopo River are located in the South African Plateau, which is itself an area with relatively little precipitation, the vegetation is not lush and the ecology is fragile. If it is developed on a large scale, the Limpopo River may develop in the direction of the Yellow River in the Far East Empire.

Fortunately, the population in the upper reaches of the Limpopo River is not large. Otherwise, if it is over-exploited, the Plains Province will be harmed in the end.

Pingyuan Province has favorable natural conditions, but it is not without disadvantages. Moreover, due to its short history, the problem of insufficient development experience is unavoidable.

During the Fifth Five-Year Plan, the Pingyuan Provincial Government planned to correct the problems that had been exposed in Pingyuan Province over the past thirty years.

(End of this chapter)