African Nationhood

Chapter 333 Internal Affairs Meeting-Agriculture Medicine
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After Ouyang Geng finished speaking, next was Tan Yaoxun from the agricultural department.

"Let me talk about the development of agriculture and animal husbandry. In 1895, the company's agriculture achieved great development.

Compared with a few years ago, especially before 1890, we found that the water and warm conditions in Matabeleland and Lunda areas have shown signs of improvement. "

Tan Yaoxun's words reminded Shi Jintang that the years from 1888 to 1892 were a famous drought period in the history of southeastern Africa.

Many indigenous people in Africa starved to death, the most serious ones being in Ethiopia and South Sudan, where it is said that one-third of the indigenous people died of starvation.

Tsetse flies, drought, and so many natural disasters have caused the indigenous people of East Africa to have strong personalities and full combat effectiveness.

In 1891, Germany suffered an uprising by the Tanganyika indigenous people. One-third of the 100 million indigenous people were killed by the Germans before the uprising was suppressed.

Italians wanted to colonize Ethiopia, but were beaten so badly that they returned to Europe in despair.

Looking back on the past, Shi Jintang couldn't help but sigh. Fortunately, the British left him in Southwest Africa at that time.

If he were allowed to go to East Africa, I'm afraid he would still be huddled in the coastal areas and would not dare to go inland.

……

Among the lands occupied by Nanhua Company, the Namib region (Namibia) and the Bechuanaland region (Botswana) are all desert areas, and the truly densely populated areas are in the Orange Grove area.

The two kingdoms of Mata and Lunda were administrative offices at that time, and the degree of development was very low. The impact of drought on Nanhua Company was not obvious.

The real surge in the company's immigrant population occurred in 1893, after the drought had passed.

Even if a drought occurs, the impact on Nanhua Company will not be obvious. After all, the population base is small, and the number of wild animals in the controlled territory is greater than the number of immigrants.

If you really encounter a drought, you can survive the disaster by hunting wild animals.

After the drought passed, the water and warm conditions in Southeast Africa began to recover, and now the agricultural sector is clearly feeling the "feedback" of nature.

……

“With the improvement of water and warm conditions, the company’s agricultural production has achieved a bumper harvest.

Last year, the company harvested 9.3 tons of wheat, 5.5 tons of soybeans, 9.8 tons of corn, 3.7 tons of rice, 26 bales of cotton, 18 pounds of coffee beans, 30.8 pounds of tobacco, 1400 tons of sisal, 595 tons of sucrose, and 108 tons of white sugar. Ton.

The company's farmland reclamation volume has increased significantly, reaching a total of 309 million hectares, and pasture land has reached 410 million hectares.

The number of registered employees on the company's farms has reached a record high of 345 million. These prime-age laborers have greatly accelerated the company's development of agriculture and animal husbandry.

Because of the rapid growth of immigrants, the company's material reserves have been affected, and overall they are still increasing.

Only certain supplies are affected, such as corn and rice.

The company currently has 101 million tons of wheat reserves, 245 million tons of corn, 49 tons of rice, 222 million tons of soybeans, and 602 million tons of dried sweet potatoes.

7.8 tons of dried salted sardines and sturgeons, 5.6 tons of dried beef and sheep meat, 11 pieces of cotton cloth, 31.5 pounds of tobacco, 1395 tons of white sugar, and 3540 tons of sucrose.

The large decline in corn stocks is due to the pharmaceutical sector's desire to use corn to make wine and ethanol. "

In addition to producing ethanol to neutralize gasoline, corn is used to ferment and culture penicillin.

The medical department has discovered that corn extract can be used to cultivate penicillin bacteria on a large scale. It is understandable that the consumption is high.

In order to avoid the tsetse fly infestation, Nanhua Company placed the main production areas of corn in the Orange Grove area, the southern Bechuanaland area and the northern Namib area. It tried not to plant corn in Mata and Ronda.

……

“The company’s livestock industry has rebounded in the past two years. After a long period of strict prevention and active control, the rinderpest epidemic that raged in the past two years has finally passed.

The inventory of cattle, sheep, horses and other livestock has greatly increased. Among them, the number of cattle has rebounded significantly, but it will take time to return to its peak.

Today, the company has 73.9 cattle, 170.8 million sheep, and 55 horses.

In addition, the forest coverage rate in Matabeleland has dropped to about 73%, and the forest coverage rate in densely populated areas has basically dropped to less than 20%. The forest coverage rate in Jinling City (Bulawayo) is controlled at 12%. In addition, the green belt in the city is planted with a large number of ornamental plants that can repel mosquitoes, such as marigold, citronella, basil, and sage.

In addition, lemon trees are also planted in plantations and orchards in accordance with the requirements. This fruit tree can also effectively repel mosquitoes.

As for plants such as mint, rosemary, and tuberose, you can choose to plant them. "

"The agricultural department has done a good job in recent years, even considering mosquito-repellent plants."

Tan Yaoxun nodded, smiled and sat down.

……

When Xia Yi saw Tan Yaoxun sitting down, she immediately stood up.

"Mr. Shi, I have good news to report to you. We have found a powerful insecticide as per your request.

The insecticidal properties of this compound were discovered for the first time and were not previously discovered by its inventors. "

Hearing what Xia Yi said, Shi Jintang couldn't help but be a little confused. "Powerful insecticide" at this time?
  Just kidding, why doesn't he remember?
  It was not until Xia Yi took out a small bottle of white crystals that Shi Jintang could not believe it. He was so surprised!
  "This, this is?"

"Bis-p-chlorophenyltrichloroethane was synthesized by a European chemist in 1874.

But people at that time did not discover its usefulness. Cai Ya from our medical school was looking through chemistry journals one day.

From an explanatory article, she saw a picture of a compound synthesized by this chemist. She felt that this compound was quite consistent with the insecticidal characteristics of chloride you mentioned.

So she followed the chemist's steps and synthesized these white crystals by condensing chlorobenzene and trichloroacetaldehyde at high temperatures under acidic conditions in the laboratory.

According to its English name, we named it DDT. "

Hearing this, Shi Jintang couldn't help but want to scratch his head.

Wow, this thing was invented so early!

He always remembered that DDT became popular around the world during World War II, and thought it was invented at that time.

It turned out that his memory had deceived him. If he had known that this thing had been invented, would he still be afraid of a tsetse fly?
  ……

It is true that Shi Jintang remembered it wrong. After Otmar Chintler synthesized this thing in 1874 in the original time and space, he did not find any use for it and threw it aside.

In 1942, the Swedish chemist Miller unearthed this insecticide from the old papers, and since then it has become popular all over the world.

However, its toxicity and carcinogenicity were slowly discovered in the following decades.

By the 1970s, this compound pesticide was banned around the world.

But the compound was effective against both malaria and tsetse flies.

Therefore, Shi Jintang is very entangled now. In the end, his desire for success defeated his rationality.

"Well, has the toxicological effect of this thing been tested?"

When Xia Yi heard Boss Shi ask, she shook her head in embarrassment, "After we tested its insecticidal effect, we were so happy that we forgot about it."

Shi Jintang’s face was gloomy, “This pesticide must be tested for toxicology.

After all, it is a chemical that directly faces the human body.

I don't want to cause endless troubles after toxicology tests are completed before promoting it to the public for use. "

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  (End of this chapter)