Chapter 669: Workers and Peasants Collaborate
Under economic transformation, East Africa’s largest industry, agriculture, is naturally unavoidable. Industrialization does not mean abandoning agriculture, but further improving agricultural production efficiency.
Ernst said at the government work conference: "Agriculture is the foundation of the national economy and a prerequisite for survival and all production. Therefore, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, we must still pay attention to agricultural development issues, focusing on continuously improving agricultural production efficiency, especially promoting agricultural diversification, and doing our utmost to give full play to the advantages of East African agriculture and achieve coordinated development between agriculture and industry."
Before this, Ernst would not talk about the coordinated development of agriculture and industry, because the scale of industry in East Africa was not as large as that of handicrafts in the past. Now that he has finally accumulated some wealth, he has the confidence to promote the common development of agriculture and industry.
"What is agricultural diversification? And how does it relate to agriculture in East Africa? Agricultural diversification means not putting all your eggs in one basket. For example, in terms of staple food, the two major staple foods in East Africa are wheat and rice. However, we must know that the land in East Africa is far more talented in growing corn, millet, sorghum, soybeans and other food crops than other countries in the world."
Of course, the latter grain crops are easy to produce in high yields in East Africa, but it is difficult for them to surpass wheat and rice in terms of taste. However, everyone has their own preferences and they can always find the right people for them, so the diet of East Africans has been diverse from the beginning.
"Agriculture first solves the problem of food, which is also the first impression of most people. However, it is easy to overlook how agriculture provides the basic conditions for industrial development."
"Take the textile industry as an example. The main raw materials of the textile industry, cotton, linen, raw silk, etc., all come from agricultural production activities. In the 19th century, the textile industry was the world's largest industry."
"As the first industrialized country, Britain's early industrialization can be said to be entirely driven by the textile industry, including the American slave trade, which was also stimulated by the demand for labor on cotton plantations."
"In the 19th century, agriculture provided the vast majority of raw materials for industry, followed by mining."
In the future, with the advancement of technology, there will also be a chemical industry, but the chemical industry still cannot do without agriculture and mining to provide the most basic raw materials. Its essence is the expansion of the application of raw material properties.
In East Africa, agriculture and mining are relatively prosperous, but they cannot be considered developed because their production efficiency still cannot reach the level of European and American countries. Of course, this does not include Eastern European countries such as Tsarist Russia.
To be honest, it is more difficult for a country like Tsarist Russia to develop agriculture than East Africa. This is determined by the climate, whether in terms of output, variety, or area.
Tsarist Russia simply had the world's largest area of high-quality black soil arable land, but other than that, it had no other advantages. The black soil was the most fertile, but the water and heat conditions were too poor, so only one season of production could be achieved a year.
Moreover, the effective land area of Tsarist Russia is much smaller than that of East Africa. Comparing the effective land area, East Africa ranks first in the world, followed by the United States, and then the Far Eastern Empire.
The arable land in East Africa is mainly provided by several large plateaus, which naturally cannot be compared with the continuous plains of North America. The Congo rainforest and desert alone occupy nearly three million square kilometers of land in East Africa.
But the western United States also has huge Rocky Mountains, which occupy one-third of the United States' area, and the United States' land area is much smaller than that of East Africa.
Of course, East Africa's agricultural conditions also have their own disadvantages, that is, land quality. However, land quality mainly depends on later management and improvement. In the 21st century, many lands rely on chemical fertilizers and scientific farming methods. In any case, the land quality in East Africa is generally better than that of the Far East Empire.
Once East Africa takes over Mozambique, it will still have its own black soil. Although the area of black soil in Mozambique is much smaller, it has filled a gap in East Africa's soil.
Ernst went on to say: “So you have to see the correlation between agriculture and industry. The Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Industry should communicate more. To put it simply, the Ministry of Agriculture used to deal more with the Ministry of Foreign Trade because we mainly export the most basic food. But now that the Ministry of Industry is involved, we need to increase the added value of agricultural products so that we can get greater value when we re-export them and extend the industrial chain.”
"For example, canned fruit products, such as our East African canned fruit industry, are very popular in Tsarist Russia. They solve the problem of fruit not being durable and difficult to store, and open up sales channels. The related factories also solve the employment problem of some citizens."
"Or maybe our sisal industry. The sisal industry in East Africa has developed rapidly in recent years. However, the efficiency of sisal processing factories in East Africa was low and the production capacity was small. After nearly 20 years of hard work, East African sisal processing has finally gotten rid of its dependence on external factors. We can meet customer needs for a variety of industrial products such as hemp ropes and linen cloth."
Ernst kept talking, mainly to enlighten his subordinates. After all, sitting in the office all day would not allow them to discover business opportunities.
“Finally, there is the issue of animal husbandry, which is one of the three most important components of agriculture in East Africa.”
Currently, agriculture in East Africa is mainly divided into three major areas: cash crop planting, food crop planting, and finally animal husbandry.
"In addition to solving the problem of meat, dairy products, leather and other raw materials, the most important thing about animal husbandry is to provide power for industrial and agricultural production, so the expansion of animal husbandry still needs to continue."
Steam engines are bulky and clumsy things that are unaffordable in many places in East Africa, and they are also difficult to move. This is also true in Europe, not to mention East Africa.
Today, the main forces in agriculture are still human and animal power. In addition to the needs of industrial and agricultural production, transportation and logistics are also extremely dependent on animal power.
Therefore, expanding the scale of animal husbandry is very important to East Africa at present and is one of the important parts of improving East Africa's productivity.
In fact, the contribution of animal husbandry and cash crop planting to East Africa's economy is greater than that of food crop planting. Of course, food is the basis, and there is no right to talk about development if we are not well fed.
Everything in East Africa is based on food cultivation to meet domestic demand and export, which involves an important role of agriculture in the early stages of industrialization, namely, original capital accumulation.
In the early days, East Africa's military expenditures and national construction funds relied heavily on the grain planting industry, and the cultivation cycle of cash crop planting is longer than that of grain crop planting. For example, tea, rubber, coffee, etc. all required seven or eight years of development in East Africa before they began to generate profits, and the scale has only reached the level of international competition in recent years.
The reason is very simple. The first step in developing East Africa is naturally to solve the food problem of immigrants. Therefore, early agriculture must focus on the planting of grain crops. Only after solving the problem of food and clothing can they focus on the planting of more profitable cash crops and the development of animal husbandry.
"In short, agricultural development can promote industrial development. Agriculture is East Africa's advantageous industry. East Africa's industrial sector should actively connect with the agricultural sector to further transmit agricultural advantages into advantages for industrial development. Multi-department collaboration is also an inevitable choice and future trend for large-scale national governance." Ernst finally emphasized.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
