Agriculture-Industry Linkage

Amid economic transformation, East Africa's largest industry—agriculture—could not be overlooked. Industrialization did not mean casting agriculture aside, but further improving its productivity.

To this end, Ernst said at a government work conference, "Agriculture is the foundation of the national economy, the prerequisite for survival and all production. Therefore, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, we must still attach importance to agricultural development. The focus lies in continuously raising agricultural productivity, especially in promoting diversified agriculture, making every effort to bring out East African agriculture's advantages, and achieving coordinated development between agriculture and industry."

Before this, Ernst would never have spoken of coordinated agricultural and industrial development, because East Africa's industrial scale had once been smaller than its handicraft sector. Now that they had finally accumulated some capital, they had the confidence to promote their joint development.

"What is agricultural diversification? And what does it have to do with East African agriculture? Agricultural diversification means not putting all your eggs in one basket. Take staple grains, for example. East Africa's two main staples are wheat and rice, but we must understand that East African land possesses a far greater natural gift for cultivating food crops such as corn, millet, sorghum, and soybeans than the land of other countries around the world."

Of course, while these latter food crops could easily achieve high yields in East Africa, their taste could hardly surpass wheat and rice. But every radish and green vegetable had its admirers; there would always be people suited to them. Thus, East Africans' diet had been diverse from the very beginning.

"Agriculture first solves the problem of food, and that is most people's first impression of it. But how agriculture provides the foundational conditions for industrial development is easily overlooked."

"Take the textile industry as an example. Its main raw materials—cotton,