How does food production work?

[Viri]

Hi everyone. I have played this game and The Great War for some time, but I still have yet to sit down and delve deep into all the mechanics of these games. I am trying to now, and something I don't fully understand is how food production is calculated towards the national stockpile. For instance, I was just playing as Japan, and at the start of the game we had a moderate food deficit. China has quite a few high-food producing provinces, so I started a war and eventually took a chunk of their territory. Before the war, our food was sitting at around -23 to -30ish depending on trade, and by the time the war ended, we were still around -6ish. I transferred several of the food-rich provinces near the coast to my control, with the provinces having 100-200+ food each. After that, my food production was still only barely breaking even at 0 to -1. All the provinces have low rail or roads, and most of them had at least open field farms. They have routes to the sea controlled by me as well.

Is there some mechanic about extracting food / resources from "occupied" territory that impairs your ability to get those resources, or am I missing something? I thought I understood how food and supply works, but I can't figure out why the hundreds of new food resources I acquired aren't contributing much at all to our overall production. Is it possible that the MPs present in the provinces are consuming all the food, leaving none for our nation? China has a very high population after all. If so, how do I check their needs and make sure more gets back to our stockpile?

Sorry this is a bit of a long question, but I think it needs context.

[TheQuietColt]

To properly gather food from your provinces you need to upgrade your farms, open field is the second worst farm possible and only provides 1 food for each 1 mpu available to farm. As japan it's much better if you upgrade all of your high population food provinces as soon as possible. This will help with income too since farms increase tax efficiency. Not sure what the ratio is but until you build at least enclosed farms in china you won't be making much food. Lastly occupied territories have a reduction in resources and production for about 10 turns after they are conquered.

[Viri]

Originally posted by TheQuietColt:

To properly gather food from your provinces you need to upgrade your farms, open field is the second worst farm possible and only provides 1 food for each 1 mpu available to farm. As japan it's much better if you upgrade all of your high population food provinces as soon as possible. This will help with income too since farms increase tax efficiency. Not sure what the ratio is but until you build at least enclosed farms in china you won't be making much food. Lastly occupied territories have a reduction in resources and production for about 10 turns after they are conquered.

Ah, good to know. Makes sense about upgrading the farms, but did not know about the food to mpu ratio or the tax boost. Thanks!

[slaudicina]

I do not see how farms help with food production in this game.
I find I am forced to buy canned food and slaughterhouses.
Also, where in this game is it necessary to have food on hand anyway. I don't see it. I am severely short on food, yet my industrial production does not suffer from it.
Anyway, as Germany, I find before I can build anything, I have to build cannery 1, and 2 just so I can have enough infantry in the game and it is still not enough

[Viri]

Originally posted by slaudicina:

I do not see how farms help with food production in this game.
I find I am forced to buy canned food and slaughterhouses.
Also, where in this game is it necessary to have food on hand anyway. I don't see it. I am severely short on food, yet my industrial production does not suffer from it.
Anyway, as Germany, I find before I can build anything, I have to build cannery 1, and 2 just so I can have enough infantry in the game and it is still not enough

The most immediate impact of having no food would be that you cannot produce items that require it, such as arms, which are pretty vital. Another comment here told me it apparently also causes a tax decrease, but I am not too familiar with that. I also think having critically low food can cause your armies to suffer penalties. I do not know if this comes in the form of attrition, reduced combat effectiveness, or their ability to replenish, but I know it can hurt. I haven't looked into the specifics on that. As for producing food, canneries and slaughterhouses are pretty good for nations with high populations. Provinces with lots of food however can certainly buff your production, and ideally are the primary source of food. Farms increase their output significantly and allow for more food to go towards the national stockpile. Provinces with low food production though (anything below 30ish in my opinion) are not going to really make an impact aside from supplying local troops.

[slaudicina]

Another thing I don't understand is what part does income come to play in this game. As Germany I basically don't have to worry about it, but what about countries like France and others?

[Viri]

Originally posted by slaudicina:

Another thing I don't understand is what part does income come to play in this game. As Germany I basically don't have to worry about it, but what about countries like France and others?

Yeah, with certain major power such as Germany, USA, and Japan (some others too, but I know those for certain) money is rarely an issue. Other minor nations or even lesser great powers like Italy can really be hit hard by not having any money. The most obvious thing is that of course you cannot buy anything from the world market, which can make your economy struggle to recover. It also would make you unable to build almost anything in cities or provinces since they almost all require money. I am not too familiar with any negative buffs that come with being in debt, however. It is not something I have looked into and it is a situation I usually manage to avoid. I would imagine your social programs / spending would start to fail, making unrest and rebellions more of an issue. Someone more knowledgeable would have to explain though. Even though I've played this game for a while, I have not fully looked into all the mechanics which is why I started discussions like this.

[slaudicina]

Well thank you vini for the explanation for the two of them