Ubangi Province's actions this time were merely a microcosm of East Africa's nationwide ecological protection efforts. Besides protecting the southern rainforests, Ubangi Province also shut down some of its farmland, plantations, and the like.
Under the current economic conditions, the problem of agricultural overproduction had grown increasingly severe, even more pronounced than during the same period in the previous life. Food prices in particular had fallen drastically.
Before the economic crisis erupted in 1929, the world's main grain-importing countries were Britain, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the Netherlands. These five countries alone imported more than one million tons of grain, followed closely by Belgium, whose imports approached nine hundred thousand tons.
Britain's situation was rather special, so mainland Britain had no need to overdevelop its agriculture. India, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, and others could all supply mainland Britain with food. Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, and Belgium, on the other hand, shared the traits of relatively advanced industry, limited territory, little arable land, and extremely high population density.
Beyond these industrial nations, those with great demand for food were mostly backward agricultural countries and colonies with no standing. India, for instance, held no "human rights" within the British colonies, which meant that this major grain-producing country needed to import hundreds of thousands of tons of food in some years.
Looking at Britain's other colonies—Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa—they all lived quite comfortably and were major food exporters.
Of course, the collapse in grain prices could perhaps be blamed on the international community's long years of peace. From the end of the First World War until the outbreak of the economic crisis, global agriculture had undergone unprecedented expansion. Agricultural mechanization improved, pesticide and fertilizer output steadily increased, and with a relatively peaceful environment, continuously rising agricultural output was hardly surprising.