The Rise Of Australasia

Chapter 666 - 507: Planning Agriculture

As the saying goes, having enough food in hand makes people feel at ease, and while the other construction projects in Australasia were important, the fundamental development of agriculture and animal husbandry cannot be neglected.

As a current food exporting country and a livestock superpower, the agriculture and animal husbandry of Australasia have been developing relatively well.

However, with the growing population, it is inevitable and necessary for agriculture and animal husbandry to grow as well.

Last year, the cultivated land area of Australasia reached 38.77 million acres, with a food production of 18 million tons, making the agriculture here quite advanced.

Even if the food production does not increase further, the 18 million tons of food production is enough for more than three years for the 20 million Australasians.

However, food is always in high demand worldwide, and there never seems to be enough at any time.

Although it may seem like Australasia has enough food, looking at the world, which countries can completely satisfy their domestic demand for food?

It is worth noting that even in the 21st century, a hundred years from now, there will still be occurrences of food crises leading to famine. A considerable number of countries will be affected by poverty and hunger, let alone now. It’s not easy for powerful nations to prevent food crises, let alone poor countries in Asia and Africa.

Even in Russia, which is currently fighting a civil war, it’s not a question of whether its citizens can eat enough, but rather if there is anything to eat at all. And who would care about these people’s feelings?

Food is always one of the most important strategic materials, and there is no doubt about this.

Not to mention the huge profits brought by food exports to Arthur and the government and the private sector, even the simple fact that the nation has food and people are at ease should be reason enough for Arthur to continue to increase Australasia’s food production.

With Arthur’s support, Agriculture Minister Robert has drawn up a Grain Development Four Year Plan in line with the Four-Year Plan, aiming to raise Australasia’s cultivated land area and food production to 42 million acres and 20 million tons in the next four years.

There are quite a few suitable crops for cultivation in East Timor, such as corn, rice, sweet potatoes, coconuts, coffee, sugarcane, and tea, which can all be viable choices for agricultural development.

These products can also give rise to other industries, whether they are used as food or manufactured products, and even crop straw made into animal feed is valuable for a livestock superpower like Australasia.

Arthur focused on visiting coffee plantations and large farms in East Timor.

In Western habits, the importance of coffee is very high, far exceeding that of tea, which was imported from Asia.

Even in Arthur’s royal palace, although various beverages are available, the most consumed besides red wine is coffee.

Although Arthur is perfectly capable of promoting tea personally, Australasia is not a major tea-producing country, so would not it be like giving away a dowry to other countries for no reason?

It should be noted that the Western understanding of tea is not the orthodox green tea, but rather Indian black tea.

If there were a tea-drinking fever in Europe, there would be a good chance that black tea rather than green tea would be the focus.

This is like giving a dowry to India. Although the relationship between Arthur and the British royal family has been restored, he is not about to give away his people’s interests to the British Empire willingly.

Currently, East Timor’s food production is as high as 77,000 tons, enough to feed 150,000 people.

And the current population of East Timor has barely exceeded 120,000, so grain self-sufficiency on the island is now no problem.

However, this is based on the premise that the population of East Timor does not suddenly surge.