African Entrepreneurship Records

 Chapter 624: Wanting people

The population of Somalia is not small in East Africa. At least compared with the southwest region, nearly 700,000 people live in more than 800,000 square kilometers of land, and all of them are immigrants. Due to its geographical location, Somalia was the first to be cleared. of the indigenous population.

Of course, the Somali desert area is not small, but it is not the entire Somali region. The eastern part is dominated by desert, but the western part is dominated by grassland climate. The Somali region controlled by East Africa is much larger than the previous Somali territory.

Although the northern coast is not occupied by East Africa, the large area of ​​territory in the west that originally belonged to Ethiopia was divided between the Northern Province, Juba Province, and Turkana Province. At the same time, some of the former Kenyan areas were also included in Juba Province, which is also East Africa. An important reason why the Somali region is even larger than in previous lives.

Although the savannah climate in the west is better than the tropical desert climate and environment, the population of Somalia is still mainly distributed in the oases and rivers in the east.

"As of 1880, a total of more than 600,000 hectares of cultivated land had been developed in Northern Province, of which more than 70% were tropical plantations opened in recent years. There was a small amount of grain output, but it was not to meet the province's food self-sufficiency. It was mainly Food security is provided at any time for the troops stationed on the northern border, and more food shortages are transported from the south by sea, but the province's food self-sufficiency rate still reaches about 60%." Rollman Carlin introduced to the commissioner sent by the central government .

 The Northern Province's ability to fully promote the tropical economic plantation industry while ensuring a high rate of food self-sufficiency is entirely due to its vast land area and very sparse population.

Of course, the sparse population here is mainly due to comparison with other countries. After all, Somalia is larger than Germany, but has a population of less than 700,000. In this case, there is no human pressure at all.

In the traditional sense, the arable land area of ​​Somalia is about 8 million hectares. The Somali region in East Africa includes parts of Ethiopia and Kenya, so the arable land area exceeds 10 million hectares. It also has a large amount of land suitable for pasture and woodland. of agricultural land.

 What is this concept? In the previous life, the area of ​​the Western Province of the Far Eastern Empire was twice the area of ​​the two provinces of Somalia in East Africa, which is about 1.6 million square kilometers, but the arable land area was only more than 7 million hectares.

Of course, the conditions of the Somali country in the previous life were not much worse than those of the Somali region in East Africa. Its arable land area was more than 8 million hectares, which was still larger than that of the Western Region Province.

Of course, the area of ​​arable land is not equal to the area of ​​cultivated land. In the previous life, the developed cultivated land area of ​​the Federal Republic of Somalia was only about one million square hectares, while the developed cultivated land area of ​​the Western Region Province reached about four million hectares.

Not to mention, between the two, the Western Region Province completely beats the Federal Republic of Somalia in unit yield per acre, and its mechanization level has reached more than 80%.

Therefore, it is understandable that there was famine every year in the Federal Republic of Somalia in the previous life. Even if there is political stability, it will be difficult to get rid of this problem unless a quite effective centralized unified government emerges to carry out all-round transformation of Somalia and at least develop water conservancy construction. , then Somalia’s cultivated land area can be doubled at least several times.

 As for the East African version of Somalia, the western plateau area can even reach more than 500 millimeters, and the mountainous area can even reach more than 1,500 millimeters. This condition is much stronger than that of the Western Region Province.

Therefore, the water shortage problem in the Somali region of East Africa is not significant, especially when the population is not large. Although the Shabelle River and Juba River are seasonal, there is only one or two months in the year when there is a risk of drying up, usually in February and March. Around this time, agricultural production work in Somalia can be arranged calmly by avoiding this time period.

Therefore, the conditions in Somalia are not as difficult as imagined. It can even be said to be a relatively developed agricultural economy in East Africa. It brings a lot of revenue to the East African government every year. Now East Africa is still investing money inland, and Somalia has begun to make money. This is also The central government of East Africa agreed to the Eurasian Fruit Basket Plan, which was the main factor that gave the Northern Province and Juba Province the confidence to implement the plan.

"So under this circumstance, I think the government's immigration quota this year should be increased for our northern provinces. You must know that even some provinces in the southwest were established later than us, but their population has surpassed ours, let alone now The implementation of the 'Eurasian Fruit Basket Plan' requires more workers and farmers." Commissioner Modlain did not relent easily, but asked: "The number of workers who will develop the Shabelle River Basin in the Northern Province this year should be It’s quite a lot, can you use them to offset it first?”

The water conservancy construction project in East Africa is a large-scale project across the country, and the Northern Province is naturally included in it, so Modeleine asked questions from this aspect.

"Commissioner Maudelion, I'm afraid you don't know something. Although the national water conservancy construction project was mentioned in our Northern Province, it was only mentioned. You should know more about this project than I do. It's because you have seen it, but in fact it is biased. Do you know how many people were allocated by the government to participate in water conservancy construction in Somalia last year in inland provinces and regions, especially areas where food is the main food industry?"

"How many?"

 “More than 3,400 people in total!” Roman Carlin said helplessly.

 “That’s it?” Modlaine was a little surprised.

"That's it. The national water conservancy construction project is said to employ millions of workers. Plus other people involved, most of the country will be directly or indirectly involved in it, but our northern province only has more than 3,000 people. This is ridiculous. Huh?" Rollman Carlin complained.

"This is not the most important thing. Our province is very different from the west and south. When the entire province's population was cleared, it also lost a lot of labor force. Now that the northern province can achieve today's results, it can be said that it is completely different from the northern province. It was achieved through hard work and hard work.”

Of course, the problem is not as exaggerated as Roman Carlin said, because East Africa itself inherited the legacy of the Gradi Sultanate, including the cultivated land, water conservancy facilities, roads, and even buildings left by the local indigenous people.

 So the Somalia that East Africa took over was not a poor place. It had a certain economic foundation itself, and the Northern Province was just optimizing on this basis.

This is much stronger than many areas in East Africa. For example, the first town and city, as the capital of East Africa, were built on wasteland. Most places in East Africa are undeveloped places.

However, the Northern Province government and immigrants have indeed made a lot of efforts. After all, it takes a lot of work to redevelop a lot of arable land in Somalia into plantations, dredge rivers, open canals, and expand roads, especially in the Northern Province, which has a population of only 30. In the case of tens of thousands, it is not even as large as the population of Dar es Salaam. Therefore, Rollman Carlin's men are quite short of people. He can't wait to use one as two people, so he has to complain to Modlaine.

"Well, that's true, but we can only think of ways to deal with this issue from the perspective of immigration. Not only are you lacking people in the Northern Province, but there is a shortage of people all over the country. The immigration market is not as hot as it was in previous years, but you Don’t worry, I will report to the central government and escalate your issues. Mogadishu is the largest port in East Africa closest to Eurasia, and I think the central government will also give it serious consideration.”

 (End of this chapter)