Traveling through the sword to engage in military industry.

When Ding Wei got the map of Rhodesia's arable land, he found that Rhodesia had very good conditions for developing agriculture.

Although the Rhodesian authorities have not yet fully understood their situation, preliminary surveys have shown that the total area of ​​arable land exceeds 4000 million hectares. More than 60% of the local population is engaged in agriculture, but the cultivated area of ​​developed arable land is about 600 million hectares, accounting for about 15% of all arable land.

The average annual rainfall in the area where these farmlands are located is 800-1 mm. The farmland is fertile and the climate is mild, which is suitable for the growth of a variety of crops. The main crops suitable for cultivation include corn, wheat, soybeans, rice, peanuts, cotton, tobacco, etc.

At present, the undeveloped arable land area is about 3 million hectares, accounting for 400% of all arable land. This part of land has not been effectively utilized and has huge development potential.

No wonder John Bull responded so positively when Dongda proposed the agricultural cooperation plan. These lands were idle and could not generate any value. It was a complete waste. If Dongda were allowed to develop them, then whether it was to meet local food self-sufficiency, collect agricultural taxes, or increase local employment, these would be incremental income!

For capitalists, it's almost all benefits.

Due to inconvenient transportation, these grains can only be produced and consumed locally, otherwise no one can afford the cost of transporting them from Rhodesia, the heartland of black Africa.

It means the meat is still rotten in the pot.

According to the current local land management system in Rhodesia, all land that is not explicitly owned by the tribe can be freely disposed of by the colonial government and leased to third parties for cultivation for a period of up to 99 years, with the rent being reset every 30 years.

Before Ding Wei and his team arrived, there were thousands of immigrants from foreign powers who had come to this land. However, these people did not have any farming skills. Some were adventurers who came here to seek opportunities to make a fortune. Most of them targeted mineral resources. Therefore, even if some immigrants were granted 10 acres of land at a time, those who applied in the name of a company were given hundreds of thousands of acres at a time, all of which were good land. However, only 1/10 of the land occupied by these white people is now used for agricultural plantations, and the rest is abandoned or used as pastures, which is an astonishing waste of land.

This made the John Bull authorities very helpless.

Now that Ding Wei and his team have arrived, Llewellyn hopes that they can become a catfish to revitalize these barren plantations. So when Ding Wei and his team were choosing land, the agricultural experts who came with Ding Wei, after several days of visits, chose a piece of wasteland not far from Lusaka, Rhodesia.

It is less than 100 kilometers away from Lusaka, where there is a railway. Most importantly, it is only more than 20 kilometers away from the Kafue River. The terrain is flat, suitable for large-scale mechanized operations, and irrigation is also convenient. The area is about 300,000 acres, more than half of which is completely wasteland, and the other half seems to be abandoned.

"Mr. Lin, part of the place you're interested in is unallocated wasteland. The area is about 1944 acres. The adjacent one is the Levy Plantation, which was allocated to Mr. George Levy in . If you want to take this place as a whole, there will be no problem with the unallocated wasteland, but the transfer of the Levy Plantation requires negotiation with Mr. George Levy." Mr. Kuba, a staff member of the Rhodesian authorities who handled the land leasing, seemed easy to talk to and quickly figured out the situation of the land.

"Please complete the leasing procedures for the wasteland first, Mr. Kuba. As for the Levi Plantation, could you please make an appointment for us so we can discuss privately whether it can be subleased." Lin Zonghan, the head of the Rhodesia Project Department from Dongda International Agricultural Cooperation Development Co., Ltd., is proficient in E. He once studied law in John Bull's house. He is very proficient in the laws of John Bull's current trusteeship colony, which is why he was selected as the head of the Rhodesia Project Department.

The main focus is on professional matching.

"No problem. According to our current leasing policy, the lease term for these wastelands you want to lease is 99 years. You don't need to pay any fees during the development period and the first thirty years. After thirty years, we will confirm the rental fees for the next thirty years based on the production situation at that time. In addition, in terms of taxation, our authorities will not collect land production tax in the first ten years, and will only start to collect it according to normal farmland after ten years. Do you think there is any problem, Mr. Lin?" asked Mr. Kuba.

The land leasing cost here is quite low. Even in the current main world, the average cost of land leasing per mu is less than one RMB per year. However, this kind of leased land is almost entirely wasteland and needs to be reclaimed and constructed from scratch.

These are standardized preferential policies. As an international cooperation project, we do not expect to make much money from this project. The main goal is to make money in Rhodesia and spend it in Rhodesia, without taking a penny home. According to Ren Zhong's plan, except for the purchase of machinery and equipment and workers' wages, the rest will be developed locally.

The main character selflessly helped Rhodesia develop.

"No problem, Mr. Kuba, let's go through the formalities." Lin Zonghan had learned about these policies in advance and did not have much hesitation.

The wasteland part successfully completed the lengthy procedures. It was not a simple matter of making a few documents in the office. The most important part was the record map file of measuring and marking the actual leased land, with every detail recorded.

The completed document is as tall as a person.

In this way, 18 acres of wasteland were turned into the Rhodesia No. 100 Plantation of Dongda International Agricultural Cooperation Development Co., Ltd. Looking at the more than million acres of land, Ding Wei sighed that things were going too smoothly.

He had never thought that it would be so easy to get land abroad, but before leaving, Ren Zhong told him that getting the land was the easiest thing, and the hardest thing was how to develop it, how to integrate into the local community, and turn the plantation into a bridge to build friendship with the locals.

And now, it’s just the first step.

However, for Ding Wei, this is just the first stop. He will go to several more places next, and he will have to rent at least one million acres of land in each place. In the future, he plans to build plantations of at least 30 million acres in Heifei, and if conditions permit, he will build more than 50 million acres.

The places Ding Wei wanted to conquer were all John Bull's original eastern black African colonies, but now they were divided into several regions such as Rhodesia, Tanganyika, and Shangebar. Each region was governed by a trustee governor.

But these places are John Bull's old territories after all, and the policies there are pretty much the same.

Therefore, the following process was not difficult for Ding Wei.

When they completed the 30-acre Plantation No. in Tanganyika, Lin Zonghan welcomed Mr. George Levy of Levy Plantation.

It turns out that this guy not only has a plantation in Rhodesia, but also in the southernmost part of Black Africa, he has negotiated with the locals to acquire a 6-acre plantation, where he is now growing sugarcane and wheat, and the profits are said to be good.

This plantation in Rhodesia is located inland, making transportation inconvenient. The cost of transporting the sugarcane and wheat grown there is at least one-third higher than that of the plantations in the south, if freight is included. According to the current average per-acre yield in the local area, it will basically be a loss if the crops are transported and sold!
But the price sold to the locals is not high either. This is one of the poorest places in the world. Their income is limited to digging for food in the fields or mining. They cannot support high food prices. Only when the authorities buy food will the price be higher, but even the price they offer is not enough to make a profit.

After all, he can only hire local workers to do the planting now. With the natural planting methods here, it might be difficult to produce 200 kilograms of wheat per acre.

So after the Rhodesian plantation was opened and planted for more than ten years, George Levy, who was running on the profit and loss line every year, couldn't stand it anymore, so he decisively ran away two years ago, abandoned the Levy Plantation and went to the south near the port to plant land. But when he heard that someone was interested in his plantation, George Levy was of course a different person.

Lin Zonghan and George Levy met at a cafe in Lusaka.

After the greetings, both sides did not waste time and got straight to the point.

"Mr. Lin, I have invested at least 5 pounds in the reclamation of Levi Plantation. Therefore, even if this piece of land is worthless, the transfer fee of 5 pounds cannot be reduced."

George Levi looked at Lin Zonghan's young face and directly quoted his price.

"Mr. George, I've learned about the Levy Plantation. You took it over in 1944. According to Rhodesia's policy, your ten-year preferential period has expired. Even if you abandon it and run away, you still have to pay at least the local average production tax every year to maintain the plantation. If I'm not mistaken, for such a large piece of land you have to pay at least several thousand pounds a year to maintain the validity of the lease contract. You now owe the authorities several thousand or even ten thousand pounds. If you don't pay off the fees within three years, the authorities will not only take back the land, but will also put you on Rhodesia's blacklist." Lin Zonghan replied with a smile.

"So, no matter what happens to this piece of land, it will only be a cost to you, not any benefit."

"If you are willing, we are willing to pay 10,000 pounds to buy out your next lease period, so that Mr. George can pay off the fees and ensure that he will not be blacklisted in Rhodesia. Not to mention, we also waive the annual fees. For Mr. George, this is a very cost-effective deal, isn't it?"

Lin Zonghan did not indulge George Levy.

After all, he now has many choices. It would be good if he could negotiate for George Levy's land and turn it into a large farm, but it would not matter much if the negotiation failed. After all, there are still many wastelands to choose from, not to mention the Levy Plantation.

The only advantage is that this place is connected, which makes management much more convenient. If the farming is connected, the management cost will be much less.

Moreover, transportation and future sales here will be much more convenient. After all, it is close to Lusaka, the center of Rhodesia, and the population density is the highest in Rhodesia. There is no railway built here yet. The current railway only connects the internal mines and cities in Rhodesia.

In Lusaka, Rhodesia, there are several smelting plants with simple equipment that produce crude copper and then transport it by road.

In fact, the Rhodesian authorities' biggest source of income came from copper smelting.

Since the local area cannot be self-sufficient in food, it needs to be purchased from outside. If you add the freight, the cost of purchasing from outside is relatively high, and it is not easy to ensure the supply.

Now that Dongda is willing to develop a large plantation here, it is not just about collecting some production taxes. More importantly, if it can guarantee Rhodesia's food supply, then even if it gives the land to Dongda for planting for free, it will be a huge profit.

"Mr. Lin, that's not the case. If that's the case, I would rather not transfer it." George Levy felt that Lin Zonghan's words were far from his expectations.

I originally thought that even if I couldn't recover all the costs, I would at least recover most of them to reduce my losses.

Who knows that people don't want to bleed heavily at all.

Of course, the development cost of 5 pounds was just something Huatou said casually. He just hired local people to simply reclaim the wasteland. Of course there was a cost, but how could it be possible to say 5 pounds?

It would cost more than 2 pounds to rebuild it all over again now, not to mention that the labor cost was lower back then and he was just trying to give the natives a meal.

A few thousand pounds would be good.

However, the cost of maintaining the flowers in this manor is actually 1 pounds, and the total cost is at least 2 pounds to break even.

"In that case, Mr. George, let's stop here for today. Goodbye, I'll pay for the coffee." Lin Zonghan didn't say anything more, he stood up and prepared to leave.

Although Lin Zonghan was not aware of George Levy's other businesses, he was well aware of the situation at the local Levy Plantation. It was not easy to make a profit with their planting method.

Lin Zonghan even learned some information about the production volume of Levi Plantation from Mr. Kuba.

But these are not secrets. The authorities have statistics on the yield per acre of local land. Although there are some discrepancies, the big numbers are not much different. Since the other party can't maintain it, Lin Zonghan certainly won't waste money.

Seeing Lin Zonghan was about to leave, George Levi hesitated for a moment, but his mind was quickly calculating the other party's intentions.

However, Lin Zonghan really had no intention of staying to talk nonsense, so he just paid for the coffee and left.

George Levy looked at Lin Zonghan's receding shadow, thoughtfully.

However, he did not hold out for long before compromising. The two sides reached a deal at a price of 1. George Levy thought that it was better to put an end to this sad journey in Rhodesia. Although he was unlikely to do anything in Rhodesia in the future, the less region he blacklisted, the better.

After all, his business now relies on selling goods back to his home country. If the Rhodesian deadbeats were brought back to his home country, it would also be a blow to his business image.

After taking back the Levi Plantation, the Dongda No. 30 Plantation expanded to acres. They were just waiting for the domestic agricultural machinery to arrive there, and they could start farming in Heifei directly. (End of this chapter)