African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 84: Chapter 80 Agriculture

As the ”rectification” campaign proceeds vigorously, a large amount of land has been vacated. In the future, with the increase in immigration, it will inevitably be fully developed.

Currently, the agricultural system in the East African colony is still relatively chaotic. Due to the overly dispersed population in the colony, crop planting varies greatly.

Main staples include wheat, rice, and corn, and recently the East African colony is attempting to introduce millet cultivation in Kenya, which Ernst emphasizes, as Kenya, especially further north, has a drier climate, and millet is a drought-resistant crop.

In a past life, East Africa was an important millet-producing region. This area is very suitable for millet cultivation, as East Africa’s tropical savanna climate is ideal for growing ”grass,” and millet originates from domesticated foxtail grass.

These are grain crops, while economic crops are even more chaotic. The East African colony, located in the tropics, can basically grow all tropical plants—sisal, coffee, rubber, cocoa, various vegetables and fruits...

If the East African colony only considers local subsistence issues, then it doesn’t matter what is planted, but as the area Ernst intends to develop vigorously in the future, it must prepare for industrialization.

For agriculture to pave the way for industrialization, modernization reforms must first take place to leverage its scale advantages.

To put it bluntly, East African agriculture must compete in the market to earn a large amount of real silver to accumulate East Africa’s primitive capital.

The best template Ernst currently has is Argentina, a typical country that thrived on agriculture, regardless of its subsequent industrialization issues.

Just by focusing on agriculture, Argentina achieved great success, and East Africa and Argentina have similarities—both have vast lands and sparse populations, both have extensive grasslands.

However, one is located in temperate and subtropical regions, while the other is in tropical regions, and the land in the East African colony is only slightly less fertile than Argentina’s black soil.

As for precipitation, both regions are comparable. In the northern part of Argentina, rainfall can reach about 1500 mm, while the south only receives around 600 mm. In East Africa, rainfall decreases from east to west, peaking at the Great Lakes Region, with overall levels between 600 mm and 1500 mm.

These levels are not considered bad globally, with straightforward data: the North China Plain receives annual precipitation of about 600 mm, concentrated in July and August.

East Africa, however, has two rainy seasons, November to December being the smaller one, and April to May being the larger one.

The primary reason for promoting agricultural development in the East African colony is still that the cost is relatively low. As long as the land is reasonably planned and some production tools improved, it’s almost enough, with fewer technical and personnel requirements than industrial development.

Trying to develop agriculture and walk the ”smallholder economy” path would be a dead end in this survival-of-the-fittest era. It has enough for self-preservation but lacks the ability for expansion and will ultimately be crushed by the cost advantages of large-scale agricultural production.

Capitalist agriculture is characterized by consolidating land for management. The most prominent contemporary examples are the ”Prussia model” and the ”American model.”

Both essentially consolidate land into the hands of a few people, managing it uniformly, using scale advantages to impact the market, capturing it and garnering huge profits.

The land property rights in the East African colony are directly in Ernst’s hands, so there’s no need for top-down reform like in Prussia.

But Ernst himself doesn’t abuse Black people, so there is a distinction from American plantations.

Given this, Ernst simply adopts the large farm model.

All land in East Africa is Ernst’s private property, and immigrants have no ownership rights. Their nature is that of agricultural workers in the farm.

Compensation methods are naturally performance-based: the more you work, the more you earn; the less you work, the less you earn.

Currently, the East African colony is directly divided into several major agricultural regions based on climate and rainfall, with uniform planting of the same crop within each region.

In the western regions of the Great Lakes Region, Soron Lake Region, and northern Malawi Lake Region, eastern Malawi Lake Region, and central plateau region, southern Kenya primarily focuses on wheat cultivation.

This is determined by immigrant dietary habits and market demand, whether they are immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire or North China regions in the Far East, they have a habit of eating flour-based foods, and the main grain for market sales is naturally wheat.

The three eastern coastal districts and the eastern coastal plains of Kenya mainly grow rice.

The northern plateau regions and areas north of Kenya develop millet and livestock.

Among them, wheat and livestock are the main revenue sources for the East African colony apart from economic crops.

These are in deep demand in Europe, and even if Europe is saturated, Arab populations still consume them, as most Arab populations live by commerce and nomadism, with very little self-production.

The Far East is not considered by Ernst because it’s currently not wealthy, and purely agricultural, both poor and highly competitive.

In a past life, the most popular crops in East Africa were probably corn and cassava, but Ernst’s development in East Africa still opts for wheat.

Corn and cassava are certainly high-yield, but both have certain drawbacks, requiring higher processing costs compared to wheat, and due to immigrant dietary habits and the European market, wheat cultivation is prioritized.

For economic crops, the biggest economic crop in the current East African colony is naturally sisal.

Besides sisal, Ernst plans to cultivate oil crops, rubber plantations, tea plantations, cotton planting, and coffee planting—five important economic crops.

In addition to these main economic crops, there are also advantageous crops like cloves and pyrethrum.

In a past life, East Africa was an important cotton-producing region in Africa, with East African countries all cultivating cotton, so cotton cultivation is not a problem, and the market is relatively easy to find. Backed by Germany, it can still be absorbed on its lands.

There are various options for oil crops—peanuts, sesame seeds, soybeans, etc., all traditional oil crops can grow, with East Africa native to castor beans, safflower seeds...

Rubber plantations are primarily planned in coastal areas and regions around the Great Lakes, where water supply is adequate.

Tea primarily grows in some mountainous and high-altitude regions, just like in the past, where large-scale cultivation of black tea will do, as Europeans cannot really taste the difference anyway.

These are crops to be concentrated in production, while the rest will not be detailed, as the land and climate conditions of East Africa are just too favorable.

In a past life, East Africa also had a flower industry and various tropical fruits and vegetables, which Ernst certainly covets too, but with current technology levels being insufficient, large-scale short-term transportation cannot be achieved.

Even in livestock farming, Ernst cannot directly conduct large-scale development in East Africa, though the entire East African region is suitable for livestock development, the preservation technology is notably weak.

Unless Ernst initially processes the meat in East Africa into various preserved foods, but all of this requires time.