African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 309: Chapter 296 Banana Orchard

North Province.

Relying on the agricultural development plan of the Shabelle River, the farmland in Somali is relatively limited compared to other areas in East Africa. Additionally, this place was previously deeply influenced by Arab culture, so the land development rate is still high, with most of it being cultivated land, meaning it’s not necessary to start from scratch.

In the early morning, the temperature was still quite low, or rather cool, so the farmers of North Province began their work early, organized by the village chiefs in each village.

The rising sun ascended from the east bank of the Shabelle River, with the red clouds reflecting on the wide river surface. A sandbar stretched down the middle of the river, bending southwards, and the farmland along both banks of the Shabelle River looked pleasing to the eye, resembling scenes along the Nile River.

North Province, Baal Village.

A banana plantation expert from Jamaica named Acrylic began guiding the planning of banana plantations downstream of the Shabelle River.

The banana variety introduced to East Africa was the ”Big Mac Banana,” popular in the Caribbean Sea, a variety with a strong, sweet flavor.

Ernst himself didn’t much like the sweet taste, but people of this era did, especially in Europe and America, where ”sweet” was considered a taste of subtle luxury.

The Big Mac Banana itself has a very high sweetness, combined with the climate in Somali that further enhances the sweetness of bananas, Ernst could imagine how sweet the grown ”Big Mac Bananas” would be, but Europeans absolutely loved it.

Additionally, the banana’s thick skin made it suitable for long-term storage and long-distance transportation, which was also why the Big Mac Banana was all the rage for a time.

Acrylic himself was born into a Jamaican farming family, so he had considerable experience in Big Mac Banana cultivation.

The village chief of Baal, Yann, asked, ”Mr. Acrylic, is it really possible to plant bananas in this area?”

Acrylic replied, ”As long as there’s an adequate water supply for irrigation, there shouldn’t be too much of a problem. The main thing to consider is the local temperature. The climate in Somali and the Caribbean is quite similar, so that isn’t a problem either. Moreover, due to the desert, Somali has large temperature differences between day and night, which is beneficial for the accumulation of sugar in local crops, helping to enhance their quality, and future sales will certainly have a market.”

Yann: ”I’m really sorry, mainly because I came from Hungary and never witnessed deserts and oases from a young age, so I had doubts about this.”

Acrylic: ”Of course, there’s no major issue. If I hadn’t received an education, I might have had the same thoughts as you. I still have to thank my father for sending me to study in France, which made me who I am today.”

Although Acrylic came from a Jamaican farming family, he was not an ordinary farmer. His father was a local white farm owner, which gave him the means to study in Europe.

Yann: ”Mr. Acrylic, are there any other differences in banana cultivation between Somali and Jamaica?”

Acrylic: ”In Jamaica, you need to ensure good drainage for banana cultivation. Although both places can grow bananas, the climate in Somali is very different from Jamaica, so drainage isn’t something you need to focus too much on. The tropical desert climate in Somali means the rainfall has little impact on banana growth and can even be supplementary.”

Yann: ”Does that mean the drainage system is optional?”

Acrylic: ”That’s about right, considering I can’t quite imagine heavy rain and hurricane scenes here like in Jamaica. Farms would get heavily disrupted during hurricanes, while Somali’s climate is stable, with little rain, and irrigation relies on the waters of the Shabelle River.”

Yann: ”But we still need to build channels to divert river water for irrigation. We can’t possibly take water bit by bit with buckets; we still need to bring river water through channels.”

Acrylic: ”If you’re willing, of course, you can do it that way.”

The soil in Somali is relatively soft, so this task wasn’t troublesome. The villagers of Baal Village began constructing channels following the planned plantation maps along the west bank of the Shabelle River.

During irrigation, they can replenish the water used for field irrigation, and when drainage is required, the water can flow back into the Shabelle River along the channels, though this chance is very slim.

Like Baal Village, channels started crisscrossing along both banks of the Shabelle River, making the downstream of the river resemble being rooted. These small channels, like capillaries, penetrated deep into the Benadir Plains.

The Benadir Plains, along with the Mozambique Plains, are the only strictly defined plain terrains in Africa, with other areas referred to as depressions, basins, and river delta areas.

The lower reaches of the Shabelle and Juba Rivers both lie within the Benadir Plains, with a total area of about 270,000 square kilometers.

Throughout the Benadir Plains, not a single piece of land is used for growing grain. All land with irrigation conditions has been used by East Africa to plant economic crops, including the original cultivated land of the Gledi Sultanate, which was transformed into banana plantations and frankincense and myrrh planting bases by East Africa.

”North Province and Juba Province don’t need to plant grain crops. There’s already limited farmland here, and inadequate rainfall. The local ecosystem is very fragile. Instead of planting a large area of grain and consuming the waters of the Shabelle and Juba Rivers, it would be better to plant crops with higher economic value on a small scale, and have grain transported from the south.” This was Ernst’s explanation to Constantine when designing the agricultural development blueprint for the two provinces.

Another important reason is that this measure economically and agriculturally binds the two northern provinces, preventing them from escaping dependence on the core region of East Africa.

While East Africa has suitable conditions for most crops that can be grown in Somali, Somali doesn’t have significant advantages in terms of yields and quality. Somali has no essential agricultural products that East Africa needs. Conversely, Somali cannot do without East African grain supplies. Even if the entire Somali region were converted to grain cultivation, the tropical desert climate makes it exceedingly difficult to achieve self-sufficiency in grain, as Somalia’s agricultural structure is already fixed, and switching to grain cultivation in a short amount of time is basically impossible.

As for protecting the environment, although the Somali ecosystem is relatively fragile, having two major rivers makes it better than most parts of the Middle East and North Africa. However, limited land redevelopment in Somali can indeed prevent the exacerbation of desertification.

The current potential for farmland in Somali hasn’t been fully tapped, and the East African government’s plan is merely to increase it by another 20% on the basis of the already developed land, which is also an important reason why development difficulty in Somali is much lower than in other regions.

Developing just this bit of land clearly differs from East Africa’s practices in other areas, aiming to avoid excessive damage to vegetation and oasis. Turning wasteland into farmland is easy, but once farmland becomes desert, recovery becomes difficult.

Baal Village is not far from Mogadishu, and almost all of East Africa’s banana production areas are concentrated nearby. Villagers worked from morning till evening to level and repair the former territories of the Gledi Sultanate, while also refurbishing water facilities, striving to restore local agricultural production as soon as possible.