The Rise Of Australasia-Chapter 965 - 722: The 8-Year Plan for Agriculture and Education

I must admit that being a sovereign King indeed makes things much easier. Whether it was the canal construction previously or the current World Airplane Expo, Arthur only needed to propose a framework, and a steady stream of people would perfect it.

Arthur’s gaze wouldn’t linger on any one area for too long. Following the World Airplane Expo, Arthur once again visited the countryside for an inspection and took the opportunity to hear a report from Minister of Agriculture Machey Swinney on the eight-year agricultural construction plan.

At a grain-producing area more than 30 kilometers outside of Saint Arthur Castle, Arthur met the newly appointed Minister of Agriculture.

"Your Majesty," Machey Swinney greeted with a respectful bow.

"Minister Machey, please introduce the upcoming construction plans of the Ministry of Agriculture," Arthur said calmly, nodding and gesturing for Minister Machey to walk and talk.

With a large contingent of Royal guards all around, there was no need to worry about safety. In this way, Arthur and Minister Machey observed the specific construction of the grain-producing area while discussing the plans of the Ministry of Agriculture.

"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Agriculture has three main constructions in the future: water conservancy construction to ensure the water supply of the grain-producing areas, technological construction to promote agricultural technological innovation and to accelerate agricultural mechanization, and the systematic construction to improve the production chain of agricultural products, to promote agricultural production and processing, and to increase the specific income of agricultural practitioners," Minister Machey reported very respectfully.

"The grain-producing area you see here currently has three large reservoirs, capable of ensuring the water needs of our grain-producing areas under any circumstances.

Such water conservancy construction spreads across all our grain-producing areas. To build new water conservancy facilities and maintain our existing ones, roughly 32 million Australian dollars in funds will be needed."

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Arthur nodded in agreement, showing no objections to the amount of money needed for the water conservancy projects.

The most crucial element in building a grain-producing area is to ensure water availability. These water conservancy constructions are very important and also pertain to the stability of food production.

Without adequate water conservancy facilities, drought would deal a devastating blow to food production.

Compared to the whole plan for food production, these investments are negligible and absolutely necessary.

"Continue," Arthur nodded, signaling Minister Machey to proceed.

"The second plan of the Ministry of Agriculture is to encourage innovation in agricultural technology, to encourage the expansion and centralization of grain-producing areas, and to promote the mechanization of agriculture.

Currently, we have made some achievements in agricultural mechanization, but there is still room for growth.

Besides, the Ministry of Agriculture intends to establish a fund to help farmers, to assist them in overcoming the economic crisis better, and to encourage the swift nationwide adoption of new agricultural technologies.

Currently, the budget for this area is estimated at 24 million Australian dollars," Minister Machey continued, always monitoring Arthur’s expression, and only after ensuring there were no issues did he present his financial request.

24 million Australian dollars isn’t too much or too little, and Arthur nodded, agreeing with the amount.

"The third item is about the modern agricultural product system, the construction of the agricultural product processing industry chain.

We should not only become a major food-exporting power but also strive to become a major power in processed agricultural product industries.

This will not only help with the export of our food and agricultural products but also assist agricultural practitioners in increasing their incomes.

For the construction of the agricultural product processing industry chain and the system, about 30 million Australian dollars will be needed," Minister Machey continued, "Aside from these three major constructions, the Ministry of Agriculture has also decided to encourage the cultivation of economic crops such as coffee, grapes, rubber, etc.

At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture has decided to implement a minimum guarantee price for domestic grains. Based on the current average domestic grain prices, the price of grain fluctuates between 31 Australian dollars to 35 Australian dollars per ton.

To ensure the income of farmers, the provisional minimum guarantee price for grains is set at 30 Australian dollars per ton.

If the purchase price of commercial grain falls below the minimum guarantee price, the Ministry of Agriculture will intervene to salvage the grain market urgently, ensuring that the income of agricultural practitioners does not fall too low, thereby affecting the entire market."

The continuous increase in food production is good for the country, but not necessarily for the agricultural population.

The price of grain in Australasia is also relatively low among the Powers, leading to the income of agricultural practitioners being much lower than that of urban workers.

If the country wasn’t continuously exporting food abroad, the mere consumption of grain in Australasia would be enough to bankrupt most agricultural practitioners.

There’s no helping it; this is the disadvantage of having a small population. With a limited population, the consumption of grain will naturally not increase by much.

With lesser consumption of grains, their prices will also naturally fall. Unless more markets are found, this will create a vicious cycle and is one of the reasons for economic crises.

Although the continuous increase in food production and the guarantee of a minimum price for grain seem contradictory, in reality, both are necessary measures.

For any country, both food production and food reserves are important. With its vast land area, Australasia is naturally predestined to have high food production.

Fortunately, there are now more markets to dump grains, and increasing food production is completely correct in the current context.

And the guarantee of the minimum price of grain is essentially to ensure that agricultural practitioners have an income source not too different from the per capita income.

Inevitably, some capitalists desire to lower the purchase price of grain due to the continuous increase in grain production.

This will directly harm the interests of agricultural workers, while capitalists acting as middlemen will earn the price difference.

What the Ministry of Agriculture needs to do is to start by increasing grain prices from the source, to reduce the margin of middlemen and at least ensure that the most basic agricultural workers can have enough income.

The three project plans of the Ministry of Agriculture will need about 86 million Australian dollars in funds, which is also acceptable to Arthur.

After all, such a large-scale construction will not be completed in one year; spread over eight years, the annual funding for the Ministry of Agriculture is only in the tens of millions of Australian dollars.

After agreeing to Minister Machey’s three demands, before Arthur’s final return, he encouraged Minister Machey, "I approve of the Ministry of Agriculture’s three project plans and believe that Minister Machey can effectively manage the Ministry of Agriculture and the country’s food production.

Food is the lifeline of the country. The Ministry of Agriculture must be careful when making plans, and must genuinely consider the interests of agricultural workers.

These three proposals are good, tell Prime Minister Raul that your proposals have passed with me."

Minister Machey showed delight and repeatedly agreed.

Getting the nod from Arthur also meant that the proposal would have a 100% chance of passing the Cabinet vote.

No one would fail to give face to Arthur, whose words were absolute in the Cabinet Government.

Arthur, upon returning to the Royal Palace, had not rested long before the Ministry of Education submitted their plans to him.

Although most of the time Arthur could confidently leave decisions to the government, at these crucial junctures that determine the next steps of development every few years, control of the related funds could not be done without Arthur.

If Arthur were not there, a funding request approaching 100 million Australian dollars from the Ministry of Agriculture could not be authorized by the Ministry of Finance alone.

If it were put to a Cabinet vote, the ministers would quarrel over the budget, drastically reducing the efficiency of the work."

As such, the ministers vied for the budget, preferring to apply to Arthur first.

If Arthur nodded in agreement, they could bypass the Cabinet vote entirely and secure funding directly from the Ministry of Finance.

However, getting a nod from Arthur was not possible without some real capability.

After all, Arthur had a perspective from later generations and would be clearer on how to do things properly on certain projects.

Education is an eternal main topic in the development of a country and also one of the important factors that determine the future strength or weakness of a country.

Although Australasia doesn’t have a saying like "When the young are strong, the country is strong," the importance of education is deeply engraved in the hearts of every officer.

However, compared to agriculture, the plan from the Ministry of Education is quite straightforward. Explore more at novelbuddy

First would be the number of Universities.

As time entered 1929, the number of universities in Australasia had exceeded 50, with the average number of universities in each state administrative region surpassing two.

This number is obviously still behind Europe and even inferior to the already-extinct United States.

After the victory over the United States, Australasia could absorb many experts and professors from distinguished American Universities who had lost their jobs, providing sufficient teaching resources for the construction of new universities.

In the Ministry of Education’s plan, there is an intention to build 48 universities in the next eight years, nearly doubling the current number of universities.

These 48 universities, in addition to branches of existing well-known universities, will also cooperate with some American universities to establish branches.

For example, the famous University of California, which is already under the control of Australasia.

The Kingdom of California has been confirmed as a territory controlled by the two little ones, so naturally, Arthur wouldn’t just move the University of California over.

However, with the prestige and academic resources of the University of California, establishing a branch in Australasia is no problem.

If the construction of these 48 universities can be completed within eight years, Australasia will have over a hundred universities after eight years, with the number of university graduates each year approaching 100,000, which would initially meet the needs of national development.

Although the increasing number of universities is a good thing, the academic degrees of university students will inevitably depreciate as their education becomes universal.

This is a trend in the development of the times, a good thing for the country, and Arthur naturally would not hinder such a trend.

After all, think about it – even industries that do physical work would at least require a university degree, doesn’t that indicate that the country’s educational development is going smoothly?

The only issue might be for the university students; although they won’t be unemployed, the competition for a relatively easy and good position is growing more and more fierce.