Chapter 723 Eight-Year Plan for Agriculture and Education

It has to be admitted that being a powerful king is indeed much easier. Including the previous canal construction and the current World Aircraft Expo, Arthur only needs to propose a framework, and there will be a steady stream of people to perfect this framework.

Arthur's eyes will not always stay on a certain aspect. After the World Aircraft Expo, Arthur went to the suburbs again to inspect and listen to the report of Minister of Agriculture Maciej Sweeney on agricultural construction in the eight-year construction plan.

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

"Your Majesty." Maciej Sweeney saluted respectfully.

"Minister Maciej, please introduce the next construction plan of the agricultural department." Arthur nodded calmly, indicating Minister Maciej to talk while walking.

There are a large number of royal guards around, so there is no need to worry about safety issues. Arthur and Minister Maciej watched the specific construction of the grain-producing area while discussing the plan of the Ministry of Agriculture.

"Your Majesty, the Ministry of Agriculture has three major projects in the future, namely, water conservancy construction to ensure water supply in grain-producing areas, promoting agricultural science and technology innovation, accelerating the scientific and technological construction of agricultural mechanization, and improving the agricultural product production chain, promoting agricultural production and agricultural product processing, and improving the specific income of agricultural practitioners." Minister Maciej introduced very respectfully.

"The grain-producing area you see currently has three large reservoirs, which can guarantee the water demand of our grain-producing areas under any circumstances.

Water conservancy construction like this is spread across all our grain-producing areas. It takes about 32 million Australian dollars to build new water conservancy facilities and maintain our existing water conservancy facilities."

Arthur nodded, and had no objection to the amount of funds needed for water conservancy projects.

The most important part of the construction of grain-producing areas is to ensure water supply. These water conservancy constructions are very important and also related to the stability of grain production.

If there are not enough water conservancy facilities, once faced with drought, the blow to grain production will be earth-shaking.

These investments are not worth mentioning compared to the entire grain production plan, and they have to be invested.

"Go on." Arthur nodded, signaling Minister Maciej to continue.

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

At present, we have made some achievements in agricultural mechanization, but there is still room for improvement.

In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture intends to establish a farmer-assisting fund, on the one hand, to help agricultural practitioners better get rid of the economic crisis, and on the other hand, to encourage new agricultural technologies to quickly spread across the country.

Currently, the Ministry of Agriculture needs about 24 million Australian dollars in this budget." Minister Maciej kept an eye on Arthur's face, and only put forward his funding requirements after confirming that there was nothing unusual.

24 million Australian dollars is not too much, but not too little, and Arthur nodded and agreed.

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

We should not only become a major grain exporter, but also a major agricultural product processing country.

This will not only help us export our grain and agricultural products, but also help agricultural workers increase their income.

For the construction of the agricultural product processing industry chain and system, about 30 million Australian dollars are needed." Minister Maciej continued to introduce: "

In addition to these three major constructions, the Ministry of Agriculture has also decided to encourage the planting of cash crops, such as coffee, grapes, rubber, etc.

At the same time, the Ministry of Agriculture has decided to implement a minimum guaranteed price for domestic grain. According to the current average domestic grain price, the grain price has been fluctuating between 31 Australian dollars per ton and 35 Australian dollars per ton.

In order to protect farmers' income, the minimum grain guarantee price is temporarily set at 30 Australian dollars per ton. Once the purchase price of commercial grain is lower than the minimum guaranteed price, the Ministry of Agriculture will urgently invest to save the grain market and ensure that the income of agricultural workers will not be too low, thereby affecting the entire market."

The continuous increase in grain production is a good thing for the country, but it may not be a good thing for those agricultural populations.

The price of food in Australasia is also relatively low among the great powers, which also leads to the income of agricultural workers being much lower than that of urban workers.

If the country had not continuously exported food abroad, I am afraid that the food consumption in Australasia alone would be enough to bankrupt most agricultural workers.

There is no way, this is the disadvantage of a small population. With the size of the population, the consumption of food will naturally not increase much.

With less food consumption, the price of food will naturally become lower and lower. Unless more markets can be found, otherwise, this will form a vicious circle, which is also one of the reasons for the outbreak of the economic crisis.

Although the continuous increase in food production and the guarantee of the minimum price of food seem to contradict each other, in fact, both of them must be done.

For a country, food production and food reserves are both important. With such a large land area in Australasia, it is inherently destined that the food production will never be low.

Fortunately, there are more markets to dump food at present, and increasing food production is also a completely correct approach at present.

And guaranteeing the minimum price of food is actually to ensure that agricultural workers have a source of income that is not much different from the per capita income.

It is inevitable that some capitalists will try every means to reduce the purchase price of grain as grain production continues to increase.

This will directly harm the interests of agricultural workers, and it is the middlemen like capitalists who make the difference.

What the Ministry of Agriculture needs to do is to raise the price of grain from the source, so that the middlemen can make less profit from the difference, at least to ensure that the most basic agricultural workers can have enough income.

The three construction plans of the Ministry of Agriculture require about 86 million Australian dollars, which is acceptable to Arthur.

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

After agreeing to the three requirements of Minister Maciej, before returning, Arthur encouraged Minister Maciej: "I recognize the three construction plans of the Ministry of Agriculture, and I believe that Minister Maciej can effectively manage the Ministry of Agriculture and the country's grain production.

Food is the lifeblood of the country. The Ministry of Agriculture must be cautious when formulating plans, and must actually consider the interests of agricultural workers.

These three proposals are very good. Tell Prime Minister Raul that your proposal has been approved by me."

Minister Maciej was delighted and responded repeatedly.

With Arthur's approval, this proposal will 100% pass the cabinet vote.

No one will not give Arthur face, and Arthur's words are absolutely final in the cabinet government.

Arthur, who returned to the palace, had not rested for long before the education department submitted its plan to Arthur again.

Although Arthur can be assured to leave it to the government to decide most of the time, it is not possible without Arthur to control the relevant funds for such an important joint that determines the next development plan every few years.

If there is no Arthur, the Ministry of Finance alone has no right to approve the application for funds of nearly 100 million Australian dollars from the Ministry of Agriculture.

If it is put to the cabinet vote, the ministers will quarrel in order to compete for the budget, and the efficiency of doing things will be reduced a lot for no reason.

It is precisely because of this that the ministers will give priority to applying to Arthur when competing for the budget.

If Arthur nods in agreement, he can get the funding directly from the Ministry of Finance without going through the vote of the cabinet government.

However, if you want to get Arthur's nod of agreement, you must have some real skills.

After all, Arthur has the vision from the future, and he will know more clearly what to do correctly in some projects.

Education is the eternal and unchanging main topic in a country's development, and it is also one of the important factors that determine the future strength of a country.

Although there is no famous saying in Australasia that a strong youth means a strong country, the emphasis on education has been deeply engraved in the hearts of every official.

However, compared with agriculture, the plan of the Ministry of Education is relatively simple.

First of all, the number of universities.

As time entered 1929, the number of universities in Australasia also exceeded 50, and the average number of universities in each state-level administrative region exceeded two.

Such a number is obviously still behind Europe, and even inferior to the United States, which has already perished.

After defeating the United States this time, Australasia can absorb many experts and professors who have lost their jobs in famous American universities, and there will be enough sources of teachers for the construction of new universities.

In the plan of the Ministry of Education, 48 universities are planned to be built in the next eight years, almost doubling the number of existing universities.

In addition to the branches of the existing famous universities, these 48 universities will also cooperate with some American universities to establish branches of American universities.

For example, the famous University of California in the United States is currently under the control of Australasia.

The Kingdom of California has been confirmed to be a territory controlled by the two little guys, so Arthur will naturally not move the University of California directly.

However, with the reputation and faculty of the University of California, it is still no problem to build a branch in Australasia.

If the construction of these 48 universities can be completed within eight years, Australasia will have hundreds of universities in eight years, and the number of college students graduating each year will be close to 100,000, which has initially met the needs of national development.

Although the increasing number of universities is a good thing, as the academic qualifications of college students become universal, the academic qualifications of universities are destined to depreciate a lot.

This is the trend of the development of the times, and it is a good thing for the country. Arthur will naturally not stop such a trend.

After all, think about it, even those industries that do physical work are guaranteed to have a university degree at the bottom. Doesn't this mean that the country's education development is very smooth?

The only possibility is that college students will suffer. Although they will not be unemployed, the competition for a good and easy job will become increasingly fierce.

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