African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1480: A Colony with Reality but No Name
Madagascar Island.

East Africa has two provinces on the island of Madagascar, namely Mahajanga Province and Toliara Province. Although these two provinces have a weak presence in East Africa, in recent years, the economic development of Mahajanga Province and Toliara Province is not inferior to that of the East African mainland.

East Africa's investment in the region mainly revolves around the military, mining and agriculture. In terms of military, the strategic significance of Madagascar Island is relatively prominent, and it is an important support for East Africa to clamp the Mozambique Channel. Minerals are the economic pillars of Mahajanga Province and Toliara Province. In recent years, East Africa has suspected the discovery of oil in Mahajanga Province, which has further stimulated East Africa's enthusiasm for developing this area.

Finally, agriculture is the main type in Mahajanga and Toliara provinces, which are irrigation agriculture and animal husbandry. East Africans have opened up farmland along rivers and planted crops such as rice and cotton. Animal husbandry is concentrated in Mahajanga Province, mainly cattle and sheep. In addition, local fishery resources are also relatively abundant.

As the East African government pays more attention to the Kingdom of Imerina, the country's Mahajanga and Toliara provinces have also received renewed attention.

Agriculture Minister Fingle reported on the current agricultural situation in the two provinces.

"The agricultural development model of Madagascar is very different from other parts of East Africa. The agricultural commercialization here is highly centered around rivers and ports, similar to Argentina and Brazil."

"The vast land and sparse population make it suitable for large ranch operations. Then, agricultural products such as cattle, sheep, and grains are transported to various places on the east coast of East Africa through ports. Madagascar's agricultural production areas are concentrated on both sides of the river, which further reduces transportation costs."

"In recent years, the pig farming industry in Madagascar has grown rapidly. Relying on the abundant local grain production and the relatively closed environment, it is an ideal area for the development of pig farming."

The reason why Finkel emphasized this point is that East Africa is a major pork consumer, but the mainland part of East Africa is not an ideal place for pig farming, especially due to the spread of diseases such as African swine fever.

Despite all the precautions, East Africa was not able to prevent the impact of African swine fever on its pig farming industry. After all, the virus originated in East Africa. The first case of African swine fever in East Africa was discovered in the eastern coastal areas in August 1917.

As the saying goes, "When you find one cockroach in your home, there are already hundreds or thousands living there."

African swine fever is this "cockroach". When professional agencies in East Africa discovered and confirmed the existence of the virus, it had already been widely present in the eastern part of East Africa and quickly spread to all sides.

As for prevention, it is extremely difficult as its original host is the wild pigs native to East Africa.

Even so, the East African government did not completely give up on treatment. At the instruction of Ernst, in 1917, the East African government launched a large-scale "killing" campaign centered on the East African Plateau.

The pig farming industry in central and eastern East Africa was almost wiped out by the government's indiscriminate crackdown, and the sale and export of pork and piglets from the "epidemic areas" designated by the government at the time were strictly prohibited.

It is also for this reason that a huge vacuum has been formed in the pork market north of the Zambezi River in East Africa. Correspondingly, the pig farming industry south of the Zambezi River has risen. It is also in this context that the pig farming industry in Mahajanga and Toliara provinces has developed and grown rapidly.

Madagascar Island is separated from the African continent by the vast Mozambique Channel. In addition, there was no pig farming here before, so it was naturally not affected by African swine fever.

Finkel said: "At present, we have built a number of large-scale pig farms in Mahajanga Province and Toliara Province, and formulated strict breeding standards. In the future, this place may become the most important pork supplier for the empire."

“Even if the pork farming industry in part of the continent were wiped out, Madagascar could still meet most of the domestic demand in the future.”

"However, this situation is basically impossible to happen. After all, we still have a lot of pig farming in the south and west, which has not been affected by the swine fever."

Because of the decisiveness of the East African governments, although African swine fever caused huge losses to the East African pig industry ten years ago, the effect was also very significant. In the 1920s, no case of African swine fever was found in East Africa.

Of course, the East African government has not relaxed its vigilance. After all, no one can be sure that African swine fever has been truly eradicated. As mentioned before, African swine fever originated from wild pigs in Africa, and it is obviously impossible to completely eradicate these wild pigs.

For example, in some nature reserves in East Africa, wild African pigs still exist in these areas, which means that African swine fever may make a comeback in the future.

"At present, the provinces of Mahajanga and Toliara have introduced relevant regulations to prevent the local pig farming industry from contacting the mainland. With this firewall, Madagascar can become a backup for our farming industry," said Fingel.

"It's not just about pig farming, it's also about other things like cattle and sheep farming. Even if there's an animal plague on the mainland, it can ensure that Madagascar is not affected."

This is somewhat similar to the current treatment and management model of Gross Michel banana cultivation in East Africa. Basically, each major planting area is artificially isolated to prevent banana wilt disease from affecting other production areas when it occurs in one place.

In fact, Banana Wilt Disease 1 has already broken out in banana plantations in Latin America, but no related cases have been found in East Africa, thanks to East Africa's strict management model.

African swine fever is different. After all, banana wilt disease occurs abroad. As long as strict precautions are taken, it will basically have no impact on the local banana planting industry in East Africa. But African swine fever is the opposite. Other countries must be wary of such cases and prevent them from spreading from East Africa.

From this point of view, the East African governments’ previous rapid response to African swine fever can be said to not only protect their own pig industries, but also contribute to the development of the world’s pig industry.

This reflects East Africa's advantages at the institutional level. After all, in the past, an important reason why African swine fever spread in Africa was that African countries at that time did not have the ability to control and govern it.

If the spread of African swine fever could be controlled in the early stages of its outbreak, perhaps the spread of African swine fever around the world in the 21st century would not have occurred, but would have been limited to Africa. In the past, African swine fever was officially confirmed in Kenya in 1921, and East Africa was able to confirm this case in 1917, which reflects the relatively sound livestock disease monitoring and prevention system of the East African government.

Although experts in East Africa only confirmed the virus a few years earlier than in the previous life, the significance is completely different.

Because in this time and space, East Africa's colonization and development of Africa directly triggered the "mass extinction" in Africa. For example, the number of African wild pigs also dropped to an alarming level.

This also means that even when African swine fever is confirmed, the number of wild carriers of East African swine fever is much smaller than in previous lives, and the experts in related fields in East Africa naturally do not have many samples to study. Although the outbreak of African swine fever has not been prevented, the economic losses have been reduced to a minimum at the current level and are ultimately within a controllable range.

Friedrich said: "Even if the development of Mahajanga and Toliara provinces is limited, they have the potential to become the granary and meat warehouse of East Africa. The climate, topography and other conditions of these two provinces are conducive to large-scale agricultural development. In the empire, the comprehensive agricultural conditions are also above average."

The combined area of ​​Mahajanga Province and Toliara Province is about 300,000 square kilometers, accounting for half of the entire area of ​​Madagascar. Although it has a tropical savanna climate, it has many rivers and sufficient water resources. More importantly, the population is not large.

Therefore, whether it is the development of planting industry or animal husbandry, there is great potential to be explored, and its agricultural development conditions are at least much more advantageous than those of Australia's Murray Darling Basin.

Of course, the area with the best climate on the island of Madagascar is still the central plateau, but the main part of the plateau is in the hands of the Kingdom of Imerina.

Friedrich said: "The development of the Kingdom of Imerina can drive the economic development of our Mahajanga Province and Toliara Province. After all, the conditions of the Kingdom of Imerina are better than those of our two provinces. The only drawback is that the population of the Kingdom of Imerina is not enough. It should at least increase to tens of millions to be barely qualified."

"Without sufficient manpower, the cost of cash crop planting cannot be reduced. Therefore, the three million people in the Kingdom of Imerina are still too few. We should speed up immigration to this French colony."

Over the years, East Africa has actually been sending immigrants to the Kingdom of Imerina. Of course, the purpose of East Africa sending immigrants to a French colony is obviously not simple. The most important point is to subtly influence the Kingdom of Imerina through immigration.

This is also a long-term national policy of East Africa. Not only the Kingdom of Imerina, but almost all the countries surrounding East Africa where East Africa can get involved have relevant measures.

This also reveals the huge ambition of the East African government, which is to establish a huge East African-like cultural circle to expand and establish East Africa's international influence and status.

In terms of hardware, East Africa has changed its population structure by importing white and yellow immigrants to these regions. After all, East Africa is a country of mixed yellow and white races. This also means that there is a natural barrier between East Africa and countries where a single skin color or two or more skin colors dominate.

It is easy to understand countries with a single skin color. As for countries with more than two skin colors, such as the United States, Brazil, and India, the racial composition of the United States and Brazil is more complex than that of East Africa, especially the black race. As for India, it is brown, which is more unique.

In terms of software, it is the output of culture and ideas. Even if the ethnic groups around East Africa converge with East Africa in the future, it will not have much effect if the cultural barriers are not broken.

After all, Ernst had already determined one thing: that is, with the development of East Africa in the future, one day, East Africa will have to introduce immigrants due to economic and social factors. Immigrants with the same culture, language, and values ​​are obviously more in line with East African standards and will be easier to integrate into East Africa.

There have been typical cases of this in Europe in the past. There is no doubt that immigrants from Eastern Europe are of higher quality than those from the Middle East. They admire Western values, do not demand as much as immigrants from the Middle East, and cause fewer social problems.

The current situation in East Africa is that, apart from East Africa, the base of mixed-race people with the same culture as East Africa is not large enough in the surrounding areas. Therefore, promoting population growth in these regions is one of the things that the East African government is actively doing.

Ernst does not want East Africa to be like the African continent in the past, with a large number of Arabs or Indians, which would lower the spiritual outlook of future East African society.

Friedrich said: "In the past ten years or so, the population of the Kingdom of Imerina has grown, and the Empire has played a certain role, but this is obviously not enough. Next, the process should be accelerated. Anyway, there are enough immigrants from the Far East."

In 1929, the total population of Madagascar was approximately over five million, while at this time in the previous life, the total population of Madagascar was only around three million. But now, the population of the Kingdom of Imerina, which occupies less than half of Madagascar's area, has reached three million.

Obviously, East Africa played a key role in this extra population. You know, in order to supplement the population of its colonies, France in the past forcibly migrated a lot of black natives from the African continent to Madagascar and other regions.

In this time and space, even if France has this idea, it is impossible to realize it, because the rise of East Africa has directly led to the extinction of most of the black people in Africa. Now only the blacks in West Africa have complete advantages, but West Africa is only a part of Africa. Now on the African continent, even south of the Sahara Desert, the term "Black Africa" ​​is no longer applicable.

It is obviously impossible for France to increase the population of Madagascar by migrating people from West Africa, but the population of Madagascar Island is larger than in the past, so it can only be the work of East Africa. In the past ten years, East Africa has imported more than 100,000 Chinese immigrants to the Kingdom of Imerina. Coupled with the investment and development of France and East Africa in the Kingdom of Imerina, the productivity level of the Kingdom of Imerina has been improved, and medical conditions have been improved, thus creating the basic conditions for accommodating and feeding more people.

Although it is a French colony, East Africa has a greater economic impact on the Kingdom of Imerina. Most of the Kingdom of Imerina's minerals and agricultural products are basically exported to East Africa, and the number of East African companies invested in the Kingdom of Imerina is far greater than that of France.

If it were not for the French garrison in the Kingdom of Imerina, the Kingdom of Imerina would be no different from an East African colony. France certainly knew that East Africa was encroaching on the Kingdom of Imerina in the fields of economy and culture, but they had no way to stop it.

Moreover, France is also a beneficiary of East Africa's investment in the Kingdom of Imerina, so it might as well take advantage of its current rule over the Kingdom of Imerina to speed up the plunder here and make every penny count. As for construction, in France's view, North Africa, West Africa and Indochina are obviously the focus of France's future overseas colonies.

As for the Kingdom of Imerina, no matter how much money is spent, it is only to prepare wedding clothes for the future of East Africa. Therefore, France basically turns a blind eye to East Africa's various actions in the Kingdom of Imerina. The Kingdom of Imerina is actually an economic colony in East Africa in name only.

(End of this chapter)