Reborn In 17th century India with Black Technology - Chapter 356

Chapter 356: Agricultural Upgrade Chapter 356: Agricultural Upgrade January 26, 1656 Dakshin Bharatiya Empire, the region of Gujarat, city of Karnavati Vijay, sitting in his office in the palace of Karnavati, is going through the pages specifying the progress of the demography exchange.

He had a happy smile on his face after confirming that the operation of the population exchange was going as expected.

*Knock* *knock* Vijay’s brows furrowed as he was not expecting anyone.

“Come in,” he said.

An old man, with shining grey hair and an angry expression, walked in with brisk footsteps.

Vijay, seeing this man, was confused as he could not imagine what made the minister of agriculture so angry, and why he was even here.

“Your Majesty, why do you dislike the Ministry of Agriculture?” Narasimha, out of the blue, asked with an angry expression.

Vijay: ” ?

” He was now even more confused than he already was.

‘What is this old man talking about?

Has he gone senile?’ Vijay thought in his mind.

“What do you mean, Narasimha?

Explain clearly,” Vijay asked with a serious expression, setting his surprise aside.

Because, if something were to go wrong with the Ministry of Agriculture, which is directly connected with the agricultural production of the whole nation, the consequences would be disastrous.

Narasimha immediately calmed down after sensing the seriousness of His Majesty.

Subsequently, this reaction from His Majesty also proved to him that it was not His Majesty deliberately ignoring the agricultural department.

With this realization, he was more at ease since things could potentially turn for the better.

Hence, as if to inform His Majesty of some disastrous news, Narasimha put on a grave expression as he conveyed the situation of the agricultural department, “Your Majesty, it looks like you don’t know this, but since the war started, people engaged in farming have been reducing continuously.

Although I felt like the condition could get better after the war ended, since the soldiers would come back to farm the land, Your Majesty, things immediately got more tricky after the logistics department continued to start new projects and more and more people started to leave the farms and join these labour camps, And the situation is even more dire after the introduction and popularization of 4 season crop rotation which makes the land bear produce all year around.” Saying this, Narasimha felt a sense of defeat, as he was unable to find a solution.

No matter what he tried, the Ministry of Agriculture could not compete with the conditions offered by the military logistics department, where a few years of work in construction could enable farmers to earn more rewards and, often, even redeem a plot of arable land.

How could the agricultural ministry compete with such enticing opportunities?

Unfortunately, even though this method indirectly increases the amount of cultivated land in the empire, the problem still remains the same: there aren’t enough people working to harvest these crops that are grown and there aren’t enough people to sow the seeds for the crops to be grown.

Vijay, as soon as he heard the reason, couldn’t help but curse himself in his heart.

He had not paid much attention to the agricultural sector since the war had started, since food production had been growing continuously.

Now that he thinks about it, he starts to understand how big of a disaster it would have been if he was not notified earlier.

Fortunately, it is still not too late.

He let out a sigh of relief and fell into deep thought, searching for suitable solutions to the problem.

However, no matter how hard he thought, the only solution he could come up with was mechanizing agricultural production.

Unfortunately, that would only be possible even on a smaller scale when steam technology was highly developed.

According to Vijay, the development of steam engines and their eventual popularization would take at least a few more years.

And so, he found himself in a dilemma again.

Narasimha, looking at his majesty who put on a contemplative expression, did not continue to complain but waited for the solution.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait long.

Vijay, not finding a permanent solution, decided to settle for a temporary one.

“Okay, Narasimha, let’s do this for now,” he said.

“We will bring all the captured noble properties under the military-economic system and employ people to manage and harvest the crops.

This employment will be similar to the employment for infrastructure projects.

Doing this should be able to solve our immediate needs for at least a few years.” “On top of that, the Academy of Sciences is producing new agricultural tools that should significantly increase the Empire’s food production and storing capabilities.

With these measures, you can rest assured and manage the Empire’s food security well without any fear.” Hearing the solution His Majesty proposed, he felt a lot more relieved.

Narasimha, being the oldest minister in the Cabinet after the resignations of both the old Prime Minister and the old Marshal, had a wealth of experience throughout his life.

This experience granted him the ability to discern If some policy could work or would fail.

Considering the plan proposed by His Majesty, he could already see that it could reverse the labour loss in agriculture, Since with the implementation of the plan his majesty proposed, agricultural workers, just like infrastructure workers, would receive a fixed payment from the government and could redeem various resources, Which solves the problem of loss of labour in farms.  However, Narasimha noted a potential issue: this system might create an endless loop.

Workers would work for merits to redeem the land.

After redeeming land, if they needed help cultivating it, they would have to turn back to the government for assistance.

The government would then employ workers, potentially the same ones who aspired to earn their own land, to work on the land of veteran farmers.

While Narasimha couldn’t pinpoint how this plan might be disastrous, he felt it was ultimately detrimental to the Empire.

Nevertheless, he respected the Emperor’s decision, as it did solve the problem at least until the end of the war.

Perhaps things would return to normal afterwards.

Vijay, seeing the leaving back of Narasimha, did not wait longer as he quickly began drafting several orders.

The first order addressed the reprocessing of phosphate ore, which had been halted due to the severed logistical channel with Rajasthan, the subcontinent’s richest source of phosphate minerals.

Fortunately, alternative sources have been discovered since then.

Small deposits were found in the Lakshadweep Islands and have been continuously extracted.

Additionally, significant phosphate rock deposits were identified in Eppawala, Anuradha Puri (Sri Lanka).

Thanks to the Empire’s previously established, but now dormant, potash fertilizer processing industry, production didn’t have to start from scratch.

Resources were immediately shifted to Sri Lanka, and phosphate processing resumed.

Thinking further, Vijay going through his knowledge library and, recalling information on phosphate-rich areas in Balochistan, pinpointed locations and placed orders for immediate mining and processing of these resources within the Lasbela region.

This region lies in close proximity to Ormara in Balochistan Which makes it easier for extractions since it is a coastal region.  According to his memory, there was another potential location for phosphate deposits further inland, near the city of Dhadar.

However, Vijay prioritized extracting phosphorus from the coastal region first, considering the need for proper infrastructure development before initiating inland extraction.

Up next…

After considering fertilizers vijay went on to increase the efficiency of farming, He started to design an improved plough.

The plough he designed was a modified version of the Rotherham swing plough, adapted for the conditions of the subcontinent and designed to be pulled by bull rather than draft horses.

In the past Earth’s timeline, this was the plough designed by Joseph Foljambe in the year 1730.

And now thanks to Vijay’s plan to introduce this plough nearly 80 years earlier, the agricultural technology of the empire, which was not lagging behind the world to begin with, could now be positioned as the leader in agricultural technology globally.

For the plough he designed, the frame is made of strong hardwoods such as teak and oak, while the fittings and coulters are made with durable carbon steel.

The moldboard is made of hardwood with a steel plate, and the share is made with a soft steel body with a hardened steel cutting edge to give it self-sharpening features.

Overall, this design maintains a lightweight structure with high durability, even for abrasive soils.

The whole apparatus is said to weigh around 100 kg and is predicted to be highly manoeuvrable for various field sizes.

It is designed to be pulled by bulls and is adapted for a yoke and harness system for a pair of bulls at a time.

The plough Vijay designed has the function of breaking and turning the soil for planting.

He made adjustments to make it suitable for Indian soil conditions.

Additionally, even from the 1730 design, he added some innovations such as a curved mouldboard for better soil inversion, an adjustable hitch for optimized soil penetration, and smoother metal surfaces to reduce friction.

All these improvements boosted the draft efficiency and soil handling capabilities of the plough by at least 20%.

Vijay also wrote down instructions on how to train the farmers to use the plough to break the land up to the ideal depth.

He also wrote about using double ox teams for larger fields, which could help increase the rate at which the largest fields are tilled.

P.S.

Sorry had a busy day, so only 1 today CREATORS’ THOUGHTS Mithun_ReddyGaru Have some idea about my story?

Comment it and let me know.