African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 182: Chapter 171: Agricultural Development Direction in 1869

In 1869, East Africa’s agricultural plan mainly focused on continuing to cultivate wasteland, just like before, prioritizing the development of land in border areas.

From Ernst’s perspective, agricultural areas in the industrial era naturally serve as buffer zones, allowing population sustenance, ensuring border security, and losing agricultural land in wartime is less concerning. After all, compared to destroying an industrial zone, bombing farmland is almost painless (reference to Northeast, Ukraine), moreover, with proper post-war treatment of farmland, production can quickly resume.

Of course, this is in reference to large nations. For those countries with small territories where land resources directly threaten their survival, they must strive to seize any available land around them (reference to Israel).

If viewed as a single nation, East Africa’s colony has an area of two million square kilometers, not considered small in any era.

And to ensure the safety of the East African colonies, immigrants are primarily considered for the border regions, which aligns well with the relatively sparse population of East Africa.

The current border areas of East Africa, except for those closer to Somali, are mostly good plots. The southern Lufuma River Basin, the shores of Lake Malawi, Lake Soron (Lake Tanganyika) in the west, the Mitumba Mountains, Lake Frederick (Lake Albert) in the northwest, and the Omo River Basin to the north are all well-watered places.

Increasing the number of immigrants to border areas can also serve to isolate indigenous groups around.

In addressing the issue of historical racial diversity in France, Ernst believes it’s about birth rates. If native French people were truly prolific, it wouldn’t be about France becoming diverse, but rather its colonies (West Africa, North Africa) might turn predominantly white.

During this era, immigrants, particularly those to the East African colonies, primarily consist of farmers, who exhibit the highest fertility rates.

Placing them along the border, when these populations overflow in the future, whether internally or externally, poses no harm to East Africa.

Learning from past experiences, one of the pitfalls of tropical agriculture is the blind pursuit of economic crops purely for profit, leading to the loss of food sovereignty.

Thus, Ernst consistently adheres to prioritizing staple crop cultivation in East Africa, avoiding the situation seen in past German East Africa where plantations were established everywhere, relying solely on plantations for profit.

An important measure Ernst employs to ensure East African food security is diversifying crop cultivation—planting a variety of crops to avoid major losses. For instance, the Irish famine was incited by a potato fungus.

Now, in East Africa, almost every staple crop that can be grown is cultivated, except for those suited to cold climates like barley.

In 1869, East Africa would continue to promote the cultivation of various staple crops while expanding the introduction of economic crops.

The introduction of economic crops in this era is notably challenging, especially for crops like tea which are heavily regulated by their countries of origin.

Of course, with some effort, it can still be done, like rubber, originally from South America, where Brazil supposedly banned rubber seed and seedlings export.

In the past, the source of rubber plant seeds for Southeast Asian rubber plantations came from Henry Alexander Wickerham’s theft from Brazil, brought back to Britain and cultivated in regions like Southeast Asia.

Wickerham openly declared he stolen seventy thousand seeds of the three-leaved rubber tree from Brazil’s Santarem Region.

Later historians discovered that the Brazilian government may not have banned rubber seed exports. Wickerham’s claims were likely exaggerated.

Ernst naturally intended to test if the Brazilian government of this era enforced strict controls on rubber as Wickerham described.

The facts are clear—East African rubber has already been planted. Perhaps the Brazilian government imposed controls at some point, but Ernst’s emissaries to Brazil did not encounter such restrictions.

Furthermore, given the current chaos in South America (War of Paraguay), it’s hard for so many South American countries to possess such strong organizational capabilities.

Moreover, rubber isn’t exclusive to Brazil, as the Amazon rainforest isn’t solely Brazilian, and small distributions exist in other countries, which almost confirms that the past information from marketing accounts is false.

Most countries during this era had poor organizational abilities, making control over certain items exceedingly difficult.

Furthermore, what colonizers wish to obtain, they may not negotiate for but directly seize. With a gun to your head, compliance is assured.

Many nations’ bureaucrats during this era were remarkably incompetent, and relying on them to achieve results was extremely difficult. For instance, countries like Russia and Brazil mostly relied on bribery, making it particularly easy for aristocrats and capitalists like Ernst to penetrate.

Therefore, East Africa’s success in introducing economic crops is commendable, having introduced over twenty varieties of tea alone.

Additionally, the East African Agricultural Research Institute is inspecting and studying native East African plants, with future prospects of developing many unique species.

Current East African agricultural development strategy focuses on further enhancing tool innovation, accelerating livestock cultivation, and expediting water infrastructure construction.

Mechanical costs are too high, and before the advent of diesel engines, livestock was the crucial power source for agriculture.

With the support of Berlin Energy Power Company, East Africa can bypass directly to modern technology, skipping the agricultural steam engine phase.

Steam engines are too costly and inefficient, even with heavy imports they are not worthwhile, only affluent countries can afford steam-powered agricultural machinery (like Britain and the US).

Historically, even the largest agricultural steam engine manufacturer in the US only produced over thirty-six thousand units, indicating this machinery was unaffordable for ordinary people even in the US.

Given the vast American territory, thirty-six thousand agricultural steam engines barely make a splash.

Development must be incremental, agricultural advancement must align with East Africa’s practical situation, and currently, East Africa is suited to improve agricultural efficiency through livestock power. Additionally, an essential goal of livestock development is to reduce dependence on slave labor.

Water infrastructure construction is paramount for East Africa, demanding attention at all times.

In 1868, apart from warfare, the most emphasized projects in East Africa were road construction and water infrastructure building.

Especially with windmill application—just in the latter half of the year, East Africa constructed thousands of agricultural irrigation windmills, significantly boosting irrigation efficiency.

Regarding East African agricultural planting area, in 1869, it largely depends on the new immigrants coming into East Africa.

Human energy is finite, relying on current productivity in East Africa, developing about 12.75 acres of land per person is already the limit. Future land development hinges on the number of new immigrants.

For example, some immigrants who arrived in East Africa in December 1868 might still be en route to designated inland areas; they can only develop new land upon reaching their assigned locations, while original immigrants naturally continue to manage the land already developed.