In 1869, East Africa's agricultural plan consisted mainly of continuing to reclaim wasteland, with priority given to the reclaiming of land in the frontier areas, as in the past.

In Ernst's view, agricultural areas are naturally buffer zones in the era of industrialization, which can conserve population, ensure border security, and not be too distressed in the event of a war, after all, compared with the destruction of an industrial area, blowing up a piece of farmland is obviously not painful (refer to the Northeast, Ukraine), and the farmland is well followed up and can quickly resume production.

Of course, this is relative to large countries, and for those countries with small land areas and land resources that directly threaten their survival, they must also try to grab any piece of land around them (see Israel).

If the East African colonies were to be regarded as a country, with an area of 2 million square kilometers, it was not a small country in any era.

In order to ensure the security of the East African colonies, the priority of immigration is to the border area, which is very realistic for East Africa, which is relatively sparsely populated.

The current border areas of East Africa are basically good plots except for the vicinity of Somalia, and the Rufuma River basin in the south, the shores of Lake Malawi, the shores of Lake Solon (Lake Tanganyika) in the west, the Mitumba Mountains, the Lake Frederick (Albert) in the northwest, and the Omo River basin in the north are all good places with abundant water.

At the same time, increasing the number of immigrants in the border areas can also play a role in isolating the surrounding indigenous people.

Asked how to solve the problem of France turning black in the previous life, in Ernst's view, it is to be able to give birth, if the native French can really be born, then it is not the problem of France becoming black, but the problem of French colonies (West Africa, North Africa) becoming white.

Immigrants from this era, especially from the East African colonies, were predominantly peasants, and fertility rates were the highest group.

Divide them at the border, and in the future these overpopulations will overflow, whether inward or outward, and it will not be harmful for East Africa.

Judging from the experience of previous lives, one of the easiest ways to go astray in tropical agriculture is to blindly grow cash crops for the sake of economic interests, which ultimately leads to the loss of food autonomy.

Therefore, in East Africa, Ernst has always adhered to the bottom line of focusing on the cultivation of food crops, otherwise if the plantations were built in East Africa as in the German East Africa in the previous life, the East African colonies would be able to make a profit by relying on the plantations alone.

One of the key measures that Ernst used to ensure food security in East Africa was to grow everything, and the cultivation of a single crop was prone to heavy losses, such as the Great Famine in Ireland caused by potato fungus.

At present, the East African colonies can basically grow staple foods, except for barley and other crops suitable for cultivation in the cold zone.

In 1869, East Africa was to continue to promote the cultivation of a variety of staple crops, while continuing to expand the introduction of cash crops in East Africa.

The introduction of cash crops is not very easy in this era, such as tea, which was originally controlled by the country of origin.

Of course, it is still possible to think of a way, such as rubber, which is native to South America, and in the past Brazil, it was rumored that rubber seeds and seedlings were banned from being exported.

In the past, the source of the seeds of the rubber plantations in Southeast Asia was stolen from Brazil by the Englishman Henry Alexander Wykohan and brought back to the United Kingdom, and then planted in Southeast Asia and other regions.

Wycklean openly claimed to have stolen 70,000 seeds from the Santarém region of Brazil

In fact, later historians found that the Brazilian government at the time may not have banned the export of rubber seeds, and Wicohan's description is probably boastful.

Ernst naturally wanted to test whether the Brazilian government of this era really controlled rubber as strictly as Wwickehan described.

It is clear that rubber has now been planted in East Africa, and it may be that the Brazilian government has really controlled rubber at some point, but this has not happened to the people sent by Ernst to Brazil.

Moreover, with the current chaotic situation in South America (the Paraguayan War), it is difficult for so many countries in South America to have such strong organizational capabilities.

Moreover, rubber is not unique to Brazil, because the Amazon rainforest is not only exclusive to Brazil, but also distributed in small quantities in other countries, and it can be concluded that the information obtained from the marketing account in the previous life is false.

In this era, the vast majority of countries have poor organizational capabilities, and it is very difficult to control certain things.

And what the colonists want to get, they may not discuss it with you, just grab it directly, and the gun is on the door of the head, you say it's okay.

The bureaucrats of many countries in this era were quite poor, and it was quite difficult to expect them to make a difference, such as countries like Tsarist Russia and Brazil, which basically spent money to do things, and it was very easy for big aristocrats and big capitalists like Ernst to penetrate.

Therefore, East Africa has achieved very good results in the introduction of cash crops, and more than 20 kinds of tea have been introduced.

In addition, the East African Agricultural Research Institute is conducting research and research on native plants in East Africa, and many species endemic to East Africa will be developed in the future.

At present, the development strategy of East African agriculture is to further improve the innovation of tools, accelerate the cultivation of livestock, and accelerate the construction of water conservancy facilities.

The cost of mechanization is too high, and before the advent of diesel engines, cattle and horses were the most important source of power for agriculture.

Backed by the Berlin Energy Power Company, in the future, East Africa can directly pay the ticket and get on the bus, skipping the stage of agricultural steam engines.

It is really too expensive for the steam engine, the efficiency is not high, and it is not cost-effective to introduce it vigorously now, and it is only those countries with deep pockets that use steam agricultural machinery (Britain and the United States, etc.).

Historically, even the largest agricultural steam engine manufacturer in the United States has only produced more than 36,000 units, which shows that this thing is not used by ordinary people in the United States.

After all, more than 36,000 agricultural steam engines were placed on American soil, and they could not make a splash.

Meals should be eaten in one bite, and agricultural development should be in line with the actual situation in East Africa, which is now only suitable for developing the livestock power of cattle and horses to improve the efficiency of East African agriculture, and an important purpose of developing livestock is to reduce dependence on slaves.

For East Africa, the construction of water conservancy facilities is a century-old plan, and we must pay attention to it at all times.

In 1868, apart from the war in East Africa, the most important thing was the construction of roads and water conservancy facilities.

In particular, tens of thousands of windmills were built in East Africa in the second half of the year alone, which greatly improved the efficiency of agricultural irrigation.

As for the agricultural area under cultivation in East Africa, in 1869 it was up to the new arrivals to East Africa.

Human energy is limited, East Africa relies on the current productivity, the per capita development of about 12.75 acres of land is already the limit, and the follow-up land development still depends on the number of new immigrants.

For example, some of the new immigrants to East Africa in December 1868 may still be on their way to designated areas in the interior, and new land can only be developed after they arrive at the designated area, while the original settlers will naturally continue to take care of the land that has already been developed.

(End of chapter)