Chapter 293: Chapter 260: Current Development Issues_2

This status is still under the condition that domestic construction has not stopped, which also reflects the achievements of the government’s development over the years.

Having enough budget allows us to do more things. At least for now, Arthur is satisfied with the finances of Australasia.

After a brief report, Arthur looked at the cabinet ministers and asked, “If anyone has any issues that cannot be decided in your work, you can bring them up now, and the cabinet can vote on them.”

After a few seconds of silence, Agriculture Minister Mark Radcliff stood up first and said respectfully, “Your Majesty, everyone. According to our development status until this year, our per capita cultivated land area has reached approximately 2.3 acres, and the total cultivated land area is about 175,952,000 acres. We expect our annual grain production this year to reach over 7 million tons, which, after meeting domestic consumption and strategic reserve grain, could leave us with at least 3 million tons for export.”

Arthur nodded. The increase in both food production and per capita cultivated land area is good news, and there is not much to say about such good news, so Arthur nodded and continued listening.

“But such growth is entirely dependent on the use of a large number of Indigenous Peoples and the increase in agricultural population, rather than the use of our agricultural technology and machinery,” Mark Radcliff continued. “Take our major grain-producing area of New Guinea as an example. New Guinea has a lot of cultivable land and many rivers, making it very suitable for growing crops.”

“We have an advantage in New Guinea because, due to its small population, we can achieve large-scale unified planting and encourage capable citizens to establish large farmsteads in these areas. This will allow for a uniform planting and harvesting method using large machinery to upgrade our agriculture. Many regions in Australasia can adopt this method, using a small agricultural population and a large amount of machinery to produce even more food. This way, we can allocate the saved agricultural population to other fields, saving our labor costs and manpower.”

“At the same time, I think we should also vigorously support the development of agricultural chemical industries, promoting fertilizer factories, ammonia synthesis technology, and other agricultural technology changes. If most of our land can use more fertilizer technology, then our grain output should be able to rise by at least 20%. Currently, the tractor experiments in some parts of Sydney have been very successful, and I think they should be promoted nationwide as soon as possible, using machinery to drive agricultural production and transformation. If all these conditions can be implemented, I believe that even if our available arable land does not expand further, there is still a chance to break through 10 million tons of food production.” After finishing, Mark Radcliff looked at everyone and then respectfully looked at Arthur, waiting for his thoughts and decisions.

“Hmm, the ideas of the Ministry of Agriculture are good, do you have any opinions?” Arthur nodded and asked for the opinions of others.

“Your Majesty, supporting the chemical industry, and agricultural technology, ammonia synthesis technology, and the corresponding factories are no problem. Our newly-built Leonora Industrial Base also includes such factories and fields. The purpose of building the Leonora Industrial Base is to construct technology factories involving various aspects of Australasia to improve the current production methods of Australasia,” Industry Secretary Pierre said, nodding his head.

This idea is already contemplated in the Leonora Industrial base, which is also the reason Pierre agreed without thinking.

“The Ministry of Finance has no problem, Your Majesty.” Chancellor of the Exchequer Roger Jackson nodded and said, “For factories and agricultural technologies, the Ministry of Finance can allocate about one million Australian dollars to encourage more factories to be established and develop corresponding fertilizers technology. As for the wide use of tractors mentioned by Minister Mark, I think it would be too much of a burden on the finances to implement it all at once. It’s better to start with a large-scale pilot in New Guinea. If private farm owners want to buy tractors for agricultural production, we can also provide some subsidies to help tractors enter more private farms.”

Arthur nodded, this indeed was the best method for now. Although the cost of a single tractor is not very high, if it is to be widely used in Australasia, it is not something the current government finance can bear.

The best approach is to promote it on a large scale in significant grain-producing areas such as New Guinea and encourage large private farm owners with specific preferential policies to buy tractors on their own.

As long as farm owners experience the convenience that tractors could bring to agriculture and see the tangible benefits, they would buy this kind of machinery proactively to speed up their farm efficiency, without the need for government incentives.

“Does anyone else have anything to say?” Arthur asked.

This issue was not a big problem, and Agriculture Minister Mark even proposed a proper solution himself.

With the opinions given by the Ministry of Finance, considering the current government financial situation, the agricultural issues are essentially resolved.

Seeing everyone shaking their heads, Arthur then said, “Let’s move to the next department, any other issues?”