Chapter 173: Agricultural Development Direction in 1869
In 1869, the plan for agriculture in East Africa was mainly to continue clearing wasteland, with priority still given to land on the borders, just as before.
In Ernst's view, agricultural areas in the industrial age naturally served as buffer zones; they could support populations, ensure border security, and, in the event of war, be less painful to lose. After all, compared to the destruction of an industrial district, bombing a piece of farmland would cause far less damage (referencing Northeast, Ukraine), and with proper subsequent management, farmland could recover production quickly.
Of course, this is relative to large countries. For small countries, where land resources are directly tied to their survival, they would do anything to take over nearby land (reference Israel).
If the East African colonies were considered as one country, its area reached two million square kilometers, which in any era is not considered a small country. To ensure the safety of the East African colonies, immigration was prioritized in border areas, which was very practical for East Africa, where the population was relatively sparse.
Currently, most of the border areas in East Africa, except for those near Somalia, are excellent plots of land. The southern Rufuma River basin, the shores of Lake Malawi, the western shores of Lake Tanganyika, the Mitumba Mountains, the northwestern shores of Lake Albert, and the northern Omo River basin all have abundant water sources.
Increasing the number of immigrants in the border areas also serves as a way to isolate the surrounding indigenous populations.
Regarding how to solve the issue of "France turning black" from the previous era, Ernst believed that if the French people truly could procreate, it wouldn't be about France turning black; instead, it would be a matter of France's colonies (West Africa, North Africa) turning white.
The immigrants of this era, especially in the East African colonies, were mainly farmers, the group with the highest fertility rates. Placing them in border regions, where surplus populations would overflow in the future, whether inward or outward, would not harm East Africa.
From past experiences, one of the easiest mistakes in tropical agriculture was to blindly plant cash crops for economic gain, which ultimately led to the loss of food sovereignty. Therefore, Ernst always maintained a bottom line in East Africa of focusing mainly on food crops. Otherwise, like in the past with German East Africa, where plantations were established all over East Africa, the colony could profit solely from the plantations.
An important measure Ernst used to ensure food security in East Africa was planting a variety of crops. Growing a single crop makes agriculture vulnerable to major losses. For example, the Irish Great Famine was caused by a potato fungus.
In 1869, East Africa continued to promote the cultivation of multiple staple crops, while also expanding the introduction of cash crops. Introducing cash crops in this era was not an easy task, such as with tea, a crop originally controlled by its country of origin.
However, with some effort, it could be done. Take rubber, for instance, which originated in South America. In the previous era, it was rumored that Brazil prohibited the export of rubber seeds and saplings. In the past, Southeast Asian rubber plantations sourced their seeds from British merchant Henry Alexander Wickham, who stole 70,000 rubber tree seeds from the Santarém region of Brazil and brought them back to England to plant in Southeast Asia.
Wickham openly claimed that he had stolen the seeds from Brazil. However, later historians discovered that the Brazilian government may not have actually banned the export of rubber seeds. Wickham's description of the situation was likely self-promotion.
Naturally, Ernst wanted to test whether the Brazilian government of this era was truly as strict about rubber control as Wickham had described.
The facts were clear—rubber had already been planted in East Africa. It was possible that Brazil did indeed control rubber exports at some point, but the people Ernst sent to Brazil did not encounter such a situation. Given the current chaotic state of South America (such as the Paraguayan War), it was unlikely that any South American country had strong enough organizational capabilities to enforce such control. Moreover, rubber was not exclusive to Brazil; it also had a small distribution in other countries, confirming that the information obtained from marketing outlets in the previous era was false.
Most countries in this era had poor organizational capacity, and controlling certain goods was very difficult. Moreover, colonizers didn't necessarily negotiate for what they wanted—they simply seized it directly, often with a gun to the head.
The bureaucrats of many countries at the time, such as Tsarist Russia and Brazil, were inept, making it very difficult to expect them to take any substantial action. For large nobles and capitalists like Ernst, it was very easy to infiltrate such systems.
Thus, East Africa's efforts in introducing cash crops were quite successful. Over 20 types of tea were introduced, for instance. Additionally, the East Africa Agricultural Research Institute was conducting studies on local plants, and many species unique to East Africa would be developed in the future.
East Africa's agricultural development strategy at the time was to further improve tool innovations, accelerate livestock breeding, and speed up water infrastructure construction.
The cost of mechanization was too high, and before the appearance of diesel engines, oxen and horses were the most important power sources in agriculture. With the support of the Berlin Energy and Power Company, East Africa would skip directly to using diesel engines, bypassing the steam engine stage. Steam engines were simply too expensive and inefficient; even if they were introduced in large quantities, it wouldn't be cost-effective. Only financially powerful countries, such as Britain and the US, could afford steam-powered agricultural machines.
Historically, even the largest agricultural steam engine producer in the United States only produced about 36,000 units, which shows that they weren't widely used even in the US. After all, 36,000 agricultural steam engines couldn't make much of an impact in a country as vast as the United States.
Progress in agriculture needs to be gradual, and the development of East African agriculture had to be aligned with the region's actual situation. At the time, the most suitable way to increase agricultural efficiency in East Africa was to develop livestock power, and one important goal of this was to reduce dependence on slaves.
Water infrastructure construction was seen as a long-term investment for East Africa and had to be prioritized at all times. In 1868, besides the war, the most important focus in East Africa was road construction and water infrastructure development.
The application of windmills, especially in the latter half of the year, was significant—East Africa constructed tens of thousands of agricultural irrigation windmills, significantly improving irrigation efficiency.
As for the area of cultivated land in East Africa, in 1869, it would still depend on the number of new immigrants arriving in the region.
Human energy is limited, and with the current productivity, the maximum amount of land that could be developed per person in East Africa was around 12.75 acres. Further land development would depend on the number of new immigrants.
For instance, some of the immigrants who arrived in East Africa in December 1868 might still be on their way to the designated inland regions. Only once they reached the allocated locations could they begin developing new land, while the existing immigrants would continue to manage the land they had already developed.
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