Chapter 880 Agriculture in Angola
At the 1893 Angola Agricultural Report Conference, Goldstein, the Minister of Agriculture of East Africa, mentioned:
"The agriculture in Angola can be divided into five parts: the tropical cash crop production area in the north, the food crop production area in the central plateau, the traditional animal husbandry area in the south, the marine fishery production area in the east, and the forestry resource production area in the west."
Marine fisheries were one of the important pillar industries in Angola during the colonial era, and reached its peak in the 16th century, when Angola's fishing industry reached the peak of prosperity.
During this period, the Angolan fishing industry not only exported large quantities of fish to Portugal, but also supplied fish to other Portuguese colonies. Angola became one of the most important fishing areas in the Portuguese colonial empire.
Of course, with the discovery of gold and silver mines in South America, Portugal shifted its development focus, and Angolan marine fisheries entered a period of decline along with Angolan agriculture. It was not until Portuguese forces completely withdrew from Brazil that Angola and Mozambique regained attention.
But it was too late, because the rise of East Africa made Portugal's renewed investment basically go down the drain. Of course, Portugal had already embarked on the road of decline by then, and its investment in the two places was far from comparable to that in the 16th century when the country was strong.
As for forestry resources, in the past, Angola's forest area ranked second in Africa, second only to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
"During the Portuguese colonial period, Angola mainly planted corn, sugar cane, sweet potatoes, peanuts and cotton, as well as some European crops such as grapes, olives and spices (spices were mainly introduced by the Dutch in the 17th century). They also introduced animal husbandry, raising livestock such as cattle, sheep and horses to provide meat and other animal products. In addition, the Portuguese also reclaimed a large amount of land for the cultivation of commodity crops such as coffee and palm trees for export."
Like Zimbabwe, Angola has extremely favorable agricultural conditions. The former is known as the "granary of Southern Africa" and the latter is the "breadbasket of Africa."
Of course, this is the "honor" the two countries gained under the Portuguese and British colonial eras respectively. As for the fact that their agricultural structure collapsed rapidly after their independence, turning them from food exporters into countries that could not be self-sufficient in agriculture, this is actually completely reasonable.
To put it bluntly, the local natives simply don't know how to farm, or to be more precise, they don't know how to manage it.
After all, they definitely know how to farm. Under the urging of the colonists for hundreds of years, most of the labor force on the plantations and farms were black slaves. It would be completely self-deception to say that the locals did not know how to farm. Because black slaves did not know how to farm, the plantations and farms of the white colonists could not be operated at all.
However, knowing how to farm does not solve the problem, especially in the large-scale socialized agriculture in colonial areas. All the key details are in the hands of white people, including seeds, fertilizers, technology, sales channels, management of plantations and farms, etc., none of which can be mastered by the local indigenous people.
Apart from other things, when the white people withdrew from the area, the market that was originally exported to the whole world was artificially interrupted, which became an unsolvable problem for the local black people.
Moreover, the basic model of these agricultures was large plantations and farms. One plantation or farm could employ hundreds or even tens of thousands of people. The African natives, even if they were the upper class, only had the ability to govern a tribe, and they might not be able to govern it well. They also lacked the corresponding knowledge and technology. Therefore, the colonists built a "barrier" from the beginning to prevent the local natives from turning over.
Of course, East Africa will certainly not "sympathize" with these indigenous people. Instead, it will intensify the situation because East Africa is a more determined exploiter.
Goldstein continued: "At present, the plantations, farms and fisheries in Angola have basically resumed production. At the same time, we have newly established ranch and forest management agencies. According to the Ministry of Agriculture's forecast, in the next 20 years, the total agricultural output value of Angola will become one of the new agricultural growth points in East Africa. Like the new territories such as Mozambique and Orange, the local abundant agricultural resources have been fully developed and will become a new engine of East African agriculture."
The agriculture that East Africa took over from the Portuguese and the Boers was a complete agricultural system, which was fundamentally different from the land that East Africa had plundered before.
Therefore, the East African government does not need to make major changes to the local area in its preliminary work. The most typical example is Orange. Considering the comprehensive factors such as latitude, topography, vegetation, precipitation, and population, animal husbandry is the most suitable industry for development in the area.
The situation in Angola is the most complicated. From tropical rainforests to tropical savannas and then to tropical deserts, Angola has the richest agricultural development conditions in East Africa. In addition, the Benguela cold current has created the world's top five natural fishing grounds, and its fishery resources are also very unique.
"In 1892, Angola's agriculture had returned to its pre-war level. By 1893, the scale of Angola's agriculture had increased by 56 percent, with the growth rate of marine fishery resources ranking first in the country, only lower than Oriental Province and Central Province."
When it comes to marine fishery development, it has always been one of East Africa's shortcomings. As a maritime power, East Africa's marine fishery resource development rate has always been relatively low, which can be fully reflected in East Africa's shipbuilding industry.
Among the new marine vessels added in East Africa in the past three decades, fishing vessels accounted for less than 20%, while inland fishing vessels accounted for 59.56%.
East Africa's marine ships mainly contribute to two categories: merchant ships and warships. Although the number of warships is small, their tonnage is large. The rapid development of transport ships provides conditions for East Africa's industrial and agricultural exports.
East Africa's primitive accumulation started with the development of agriculture and mineral resources, especially tropical cash crops, gems and rare metals. In recent years, with the rapid expansion of East Africa's industrial scale, the export of industrial products has also developed rapidly.
Due to various reasons, East Africa's investment in the development of marine resources is seriously insufficient, so that Angola's marine fishery resources rank directly third in the country.
You should know that the marine fishing industry in Angola, which is currently under the rule of East Africa, is actually a complete inheritance of the marine fishing industry in the Portuguese rule era. Angola was previously just a Portuguese colony. In other words, the marine fishing industry of a colony could be compared with that of the entire East Africa before, which is amazing.
What is surprising is not the development of Angola's marine fishing industry, but the backwardness of East Africa's marine fishing industry.
However, this backwardness is not caused by technology or other reasons, but by the economic development structure of East African countries. East Africa has been promoting the development of the three major industries of agriculture, mining and industry, and the direction has always been from the eastern coastal areas to inland areas. Naturally, it is easy to neglect the utilization and development of marine resources.
Moreover, as a major livestock-raising country with many world-class lakes and rivers, East Africa has very developed inland fishery resources, so East Africa itself has abundant sources of meat. Compared with other countries, East Africa has fewer good ports. For these and other reasons, East Africa currently has little interest in promoting the marine fishing industry.
Of course, this situation will inevitably improve as Angola and Southwest Africa are incorporated into East Africa, especially in Southwest Africa, which is extremely dependent on marine fishing. The local climate is mainly tropical desert, which is not suitable for the development of other types of agriculture.
The port area in southern Angola is similar to that in southwest Africa. The coast has a mainly tropical desert climate and many excellent ports. In addition to some military needs, it is suitable for development into a large fishing port.
(End of this chapter)
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