One major factor limiting East African agricultural development was the fertility of East African land. East Africa did not lack relatively fertile land—for instance, the volcanic ash soil zones in the Northern East African Highlands, mainly Kenya; the Great Lakes Region with its excellent water and soil conditions; Mozambique's black soil distribution zones; and so on.
However, there was no shortage of relatively barren land in East Africa as well, especially in tropical rainforest or desert regions. Improving soil fertility therefore required the involvement of the fertilizer industry all the more.
Fortunately, during the First Five-Year Plan, the basic framework for East Africa's pesticide and fertilizer industries had essentially been established. During the Second Five-Year Plan, the chemical industry, as a weak link among East Africa's foundational industries, would receive greater support.
The chemical industry was not only connected to agriculture-related fields such as pesticides and fertilizers; it also involved the defense industry. Many chemical products were inherently explosives or were used in other stages of defense production. Therefore, the chemical industry occupied an important position in East Africa's Second Five-Year Plan. Whether for agriculture, light industry, or heavy industry, the chemical industry was extremely important.
Of course, East Africa had many shortcomings in the chemical industry compared with countries such as Germany, but that depended on how one drew the boundaries. In East Africa, the petroleum industry should actually have counted as a branch of the chemical industry. However, because East Africa attached such importance to petroleum, it had been separated out for independent management. East Africa's petroleum industry was already quite advanced, which also meant that East Africa held an advantageous position in petrochemicals. The rubber industry was likewise closely linked to the chemical industry, so the true level of East Africa's chemical industry still required further assessment.