African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 589: Chapter 267: Ginseng Cultivation

Both parties signed an agreement which, at Japan’s strong insistence, was not made public. East Africa is well aware of Japan’s intentions, which are to never give up its ambitions. However, as long as East Africa carefully manages the Southern Ryukyu Islands, Japan will have to pay a price to seize them again.

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Hohenzollern Province.

Although East Africa is powerless to develop its pharmaceutical industry, it is still trying its best to develop traditional Chinese medicine according to its own characteristics and advantages, or to reduce the treatment costs of Chinese medicine.

This is a topic related to taking advantage freely. The West emphasizes patents, while the Far East does not have this concept. Of course, it’s not that doctors in the Far East are generous, as much of these skills are spread through family and apprenticeship, which can be quite selfish and at risk of being lost. This is understandable, after all, it’s their livelihood.

Moreover, the Far East may not value medical advancement much, which can be seen in its social status. In America, doctors and lawyers are very important professions, but both are costly industries.

In the 19th century, medicine emphasized the notion of ”my fate is determined by me, not by heaven.” Its efficacy hardly reassures Ernst, so he pays great attention to health issues and tries his best to reduce the risk of illness.

Currently, East African medicine lacks a foundational figure to drive modern medicine, a self-forming complete system, or advanced equipment and new methods to foster development, and it meets none of these conditions.

The traditional Chinese medicine system is relatively mature, and it’s not something that can be easily surpassed by the new Chinese medicine, nor can it significantly impact the current medical system in East Africa.

Therefore, East Africa can only heavily develop the cultivation of medicinal materials based on traditional Chinese and Western medicine. Both ancient medical systems cannot do without the support of medicinal materials, and East Africa is no exception now.

In this era, Europeans and Americans are indifferent to Chinese medicine, thus easily demonizing it. Japan is charging full speed ahead on its path of ”leaving Asia to join Europe.” Therefore, no one else except East Africa is eyeing Chinese medicine, and the Far Eastern empire is quite indifferent to this aspect now.

Since Europe and America disdain it, the Far East is also beginning to have doubts about its traditional industry, and many legitimate Chinese medicine practices are increasingly being questioned.

In terms of freely acquiring Chinese herbal medicines, although the Far East has no patents, growing Chinese herbs is a skilled task, and East Africa needs to import most of its Chinese herbs from the Far East.

The main component of Chinese herbal medicine is herbs, and even though East Africa’s climate is mostly tropical savanna, with a variety of grasses, Africans have an extremely low level of development for medicinal herbs.

Thus, East Africa’s local medicinal herbs primarily take the Arab influence in African medicine as a starting point, inheriting and absorbing the medical traditions of the Swahili people and the Arab people along the southern edge of the Sahara Desert.

Black people actually have their own witch doctor systems, but the Black forces now completely controlled by East Africa have naturally declared the end of their witch doctor systems. Although Black people exist, African witch doctors are different. Even in the most underdeveloped Africa, there are still knowledge barriers.

Before colonization by East Africa, the original Black forces in East Africa had a low level of development, and the same was true for medicine, which had to be tied in with superstition.

This turned curing into a matter of mysticism. If a patient was healed, it meant the spirits had not abandoned their people; if not, the patient’s faith was deemed lacking and thus abandoned by the spirits, thereby solving issues of medical disputes.

Even if a death was due to medical malpractice, the ruling class blamed the spirits. If there were issues, it was due to the impurity of the soul, unrelated to the treatment.

African witch doctors belonged to the ruling class, as most of these so-called doctors were either tribal chiefs, priests, or other high-ranking individuals.

Of course, these deceptive tactics required a technical level too, as the spirits could not always take the blame, and lies would eventually be exposed.

This witch doctor system was overall more detrimental than beneficial to East Africa, as it mainly remained in the primitive societal stage and was far too outdated.

The most well-developed traditional medical practices were the Far Eastern and Arab medicine. The former had long been passed down and became increasingly complete, while the latter benefited from geographical advantages, incorporating the strengths of many traditions.

East Africa chose Chinese medicine, naturally requiring the use of Chinese medicinal materials. However, East Africa’s environment mostly does not support these, or cannot currently facilitate their spread, necessitating large imports from the Far East, which still cost much less than many Western medicines with unknown side effects.

The trial and promotion of Chinese herbs in East Africa have not shown significant effects, especially some commonly used medicinal herbs such as the panacea ginseng.

Hohenzollern Province is one of the ginseng trial planting bases, mainly located in shaded river valley areas.

”These ginsengs planted on the north slopes can indeed mature, but the quality and efficacy compared to the Far Eastern Empire remain unknown.”

”Currently, we have identified four ginseng planting bases nationwide. As of now, the ginseng from Hessen Province appears to be the best in terms of growth, size, and it most closely resembles characteristics of Far Eastern ginseng. However, we still need to further observe its specific efficacy, requiring more samples and clinical trials.”

”Hessen Province mainly relies on mountainous terrain. Although the quality of the produce is excellent, it is not suitable for large-scale promotion. I think we should try planting in the South African Plateau in the far south of East Africa.”

”Kells, what are your thoughts?”

”I’m mainly considering from the perspective of sunlight. I’ve heard that the best ginseng-growing regions in the Far East are at relatively high latitudes, while our highest latitude in East Africa is the southern three provinces, which are already subtropical.”

”You are assuming a bit much. Although the South African Plateau has suitable temperatures, it does not have the characteristic humidity that ginseng prefers.”

”Of course, I know this, which is why I suggest choosing the former Swaziland Kingdom as the location, which should have fairly abundant rainfall and relatively large terraces.”

”But many of us haven’t been to Swaziland, so we don’t know if what you say is true?”

”Of course, don’t you understand me? What’s the point in tricking you? Swaziland is now a prefecture-level city, and the indigenous population has mostly been relocated, with a very low population now. However, there are troops stationed around to guard against the Portuguese, so security is definitely not an issue.”

”So, Kells, how about I’m entrusting this task to you? You can lead a team to Swaziland to conduct trials and report the results at each stage.”

”Director, I can’t do it. You know me, and although I like plants, I have limited cultural knowledge. I definitely can’t lead a team unless you assign Mars to assist me.”

Mars laughed and said, ”If I go to Swaziland, then I’ll be the team leader. It wouldn’t be your turn. Moreover, I have to inspect Hessen Province in a few days, so the task still falls to you.”

”But I really have no experience!”

Director: ”Kells, don’t worry. Basically, you just need to repeat what you did every day here in Swaziland. How about this, there’s a new intern Houtu, I’ll assign him to assist you. He has returned from studying in Europe, so with his help, I believe you will have no problem!”

Kells said helplessly, ”I guess that’s the only way.”