Population and Development

"How are things going with the rubber plantations in the Royal Territory and the other regions?" Arthur turned his gaze toward Prime Minister Roger and asked.

After occupying the Royal Territory, New Guinea, and other regions, Australasia had begun building its own rubber plantations.

But building rubber plantations was not that simple. First of all, plantations could not be built just anywhere.

Rubber cultivation had extremely strict requirements for geography, climate and temperature, sunlight and humidity, rainfall, and even soil.

Rubber trees favored hot, humid, windless environments and required fertile soil. They needed an average annual temperature of 26 to 27 degrees Celsius and could not tolerate the cold; when temperatures fell, they faced the risk of dying.

Their requirements for rainfall were even more stringent. They needed an average annual precipitation of 1,150 to 2,500 millimeters, but were not suited to low-humidity areas. They grew best in deep, fertile, moist, well-drained acidic sandy loam. They had shallow roots and relatively brittle branches, poor wind resistance, and were easily affected by cold winds, reducing their latex yield.

With such a long list of requirements, even in Southeast Asia, which was highly suitable for rubber cultivation, more than half of the areas where rubber could be grown were ruled out.

Fortunately, Australasia had almost completely annexed the Dutch East Indies. Even the land of the Sultanate of Kalimantan could be used to grow rubber, so there was naturally no shortage of land for building rubber plantations.

"Your Majesty, the earliest batch of rubber plantations can already begin harvesting. More of them still have a long growth period and are expected to be ready for harvesting in two to three years," Prime Minister Roger replied.

These rubber plantations were industries built by the Australasian government, so Prime Minister Roger was naturally the