African Entrepreneurship Record

Why did Gorwystan single out the central agricultural region and Mozambique for discussion? Naturally, there is a reason.

In East Africa, the biggest factor affecting agricultural distribution is actually rainfall. In the nine agricultural regions, except for the Two Rivers region (Somali), rainfall is generally above 400 millimeters, while in Mozambique and the central agricultural region, rainfall ranges between 600 to 1,500 millimeters. Beyond that, it’s a true tropical rainforest climate.

Generally speaking, tropical rainforest climate has precipitation over 2,000 millimeters annually. Of course, the Congo rainforest in East Africa is an exception, with rainfall usually ranging between 1,500 to 2,000 millimeters. In special circumstances, certain areas might break through 3,000 millimeters, akin to most parts of the Amazon rainforest being stable above 2,000 millimeters.

In areas with rainfall above 400 millimeters is suitable for developing agriculture, while over 800 millimeters is considered a humid region. Therefore, annual rainfall in East Africa that can reach above 800 millimeters generally overlaps with East Africa’s population and economic distribution, apart from tropical rainforest regions.

The Katanga Plateau and the Great Lakes Region are humid areas close to the tropical rainforest, most suitable for agricultural planting. Though the Mozambique region is far from the tropical rainforest, it has considerable rainfall due to terrain and other factors.

Of course, amongst the nine agricultural regions, the Two Rivers region is a unique place, and Somali’s inclusion among the nine agricultural areas relies entirely on its developed commodity agriculture. It is the closest to the Europe and Asia market and its agricultural products are of excellent quality, with cotton and fruits being major exports.

”Dividing the country into these nine agricultural regions essentially means East African agricultural policies will favor these areas. The emphasis is on vigorously promoting mechanized farming modes in these regions, coordinating and managing them according to each area’s agricultural characteristics.”

”Similarly, industrial facilities like chemical fertilizers, agricultural machinery, pesticides, and repair shops focus deployments in these regions, ensuring national food security, improving production efficiency, reducing production costs, and promoting our agricultural modernization and related technological advancements.”

This is the true intention, as the fundamental reason for East Africa’s agricultural reform is to drive the development of related industries, especially in chemicals, machinery manufacturing, automobiles, tractors, and petrochemicals.

Simultaneously with agricultural reform, fostering these emerging industries to take root and grow in East Africa is paramount. Although East Africa is not lagging behind the times in these fields now, it requires steady efforts to consolidate its position through the accumulation of time and policy.

Ernst: ”The close relationship between industry and agriculture, especially in a transitioning agricultural power like East Africa, is undeniable. Currently, East Africa is still a backward agricultural country, and to become a world power that has preliminarily achieved industrialization is our goal for the next few decades.”

”Although we have made notable achievements in industrial development, compared to Europe and America, there is still a long way to go.”

”In strong countries like Europe and America, many have urbanization surpassing forty percent. The United Kingdom exceeds seventy percent, nearing eighty percent, and Germany has reached around fifty percent. The average level across Europe, excluding Tsarist Russia, is about thirty percent.”

”Based on our data from the past twenty years, East Africa’s urbanization slipped from about twenty percent in the early 1980s to approximately seventeen percent in the early 1990s, so East Africa’s industrialization process faces significant challenges.”

The reason for East Africa’s urbanization regressing isn’t due to sluggish industrial development, but the rapid increase in East Africa’s population hinders industrial progress.

Previously reaching twenty percent was partly due to East Africa’s outstanding performance during the world economic crisis of the 1970s.

Moreover, East Africa’s overall population in the 1970s was far less than in the 1990s, so seventeen percent in the 1990s represents an industrial capacity that the twenty percent in the 1980s cannot compare to.

The South Africa war was a pivotal turning point. Before that, East Africa not only focused on building its own economy but also on territorial expansion, military industrial development, army expansion, and ensuring national security.

After the South Africa war, the East African Government shifted its work priorities entirely to economic construction, aside from overseas territorial expansion. East Africa’s local territory became mainly shaped, and with the end of the South Africa war, external threats to East Africa were eliminated.

Thus, the focus for East Africa in the 1990s was catching up with developed countries like Europe and America. Of course, dreaming of surpassing them within ten years is foolish, but narrowing the gap is Ernst’s primary concern.

”By the end of this century, East Africa’s urbanization level should break twenty percent again, while maintaining momentum in various basic industrial fields to establish a relatively complete industrial system, continuing to hold East Africa’s advantageous position in emerging industries like electricity and automobiles, and expanding in traditional industrial fields like shipbuilding, steelmaking, railways, and textiles.”

”In the education field, within the next three years, our country will establish over a hundred higher education institutions according to administrative division, becoming a new world academic and educational center.”

Higher education has consistently been a shortcoming for East Africa, yet conditions have now matured for East Africa to build its national higher education. First, over decades of development, East Africa has accumulated considerable high-level talent.

Secondly, after administrative adjustments, new provincial capitals and cities will emerge in East Africa, and education resources will naturally settle in these new cities as they develop.

According to Ernst’s plan, each province should establish at least three higher education institutions, prioritizing fields like agriculture, industry, and healthcare, along with setting up teacher training colleges.

Therefore, in East Africa’s forty-five provincial-level administrative divisions, along with several key cities and East Africa’s new capital, Rhein City, having over a hundred new higher education institutions would not be enough.

This represents a leap in East African higher education development. By 1897, East Africa had only forty-three regular universities and higher vocational colleges, with a concentrated presence in the central and eastern regions, twenty-six of which were in the east. Below that were technical schools of near-college level, generally not considered regular higher education institutions.

Nonetheless, these ”unlicensed” technical schools play a substantial role in East African talent training, especially in educating foundational technical workers, with the Mbeya City Electricity Technical School being the most famous.

This also illustrates East Africa’s dedication to the electricity field. Among East African universities, East African National Power University has the most favored resources and highest level, while the construction of associated colleges outside of the electricity university is the most complete. This is also why East Africa’s power industry remains the world’s leader.

East Africa’s higher education resources are not only limited but also unevenly distributed. Of course, the uneven geographic distribution cannot be blamed on the East African Government since East Africa expanded territories rapidly.

Ernst continued: ”Of course, besides the universities added according to administrative adjustments, the country will focus on constructing several institutions according to key academic disciplines, covering fields like electricity, petrochemicals, steel, textiles, automobiles, ships, and also supplementing medical, defense, and theoretical fields to be the pioneers and forward troops of our future technology development.”

Including international students, the number of college students in East Africa is not inferior to other countries. After this conference, East Africa’s higher education scale can surpass other countries.

Of course, the cost of doing so is that improving quality will not be easy. However, East Africa’s lack compared to other countries is not in higher education talent but in top scientific talent—those who can propel technological progress with individual strength, who are considered stalwarts across all nations.

Of course, East Africa does have such stalwarts, but any country would welcome more.