TAIWAN VISIT—V Technical Aid For African Farmers

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31836, 14 November 1968, Page 11

TAIWAN VISIT—V Technical Aid For African Farmers

(Specially written for v< The Press" by K. D. COATES) The Nationalist Chinese Government in Taiwan does not leave unanswered the technical and other aid programmes being carried out in Africa by Communist China; but it comes as rather a surprise to find that a country which until a few years ago was receiving considerable aid under the American foreign assistance programme has a sizable programme for technical cooperation in African countries.

Just how successful the schemes are in terms of helping the Africans to learn new ways cannot be judged merely through looking at what the aims are and the size and scope of demonstration projects.

A visitor to Taiwan with me was Lord Segal, of the House of Lords, who had recently visited a number of African countries. His comment was that while intentions might be good with this sort of project in Africa, the problem was to get the people to approach farming in a systematic way. Some of the most successful projects, he maintained, were those run on semi-military lines, an approach which was understood by the people. At the same time, what the Chinese officials and the secretariat of the Sino-African Technical Co-operation Committee have to say about the scheme is interesting, particularly in view of New Zealand’s modest efforts in this field overseas.

Main Objects The two main objects are to send technical missions to Africa, and to conduct seminars on agricultural techniques for African techn.cians in Taiwan. I visited a centre which is attended by Africans and where accommodation is provided for them during their stay. At the end of last year, a total of 18 agricultural missions. consisting of 530 experienced technicians had been sent to Liberia, Libya, the Ivory Coast, Gabon, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Niger, Cameroun, Upper Volta, Chad, Togo, Malawi, Gambia, Dahomey, Congo, Madagascar and Botswana.

An indication, incidentally, of the interest of the Chinese Government in Africa was the presence of a Congolese newspaper director among the group of overseas guests. He was provided with a French speaking interpreter from the Government Information Office in Taipei. As well as agricultural missions, the Republic of China has also sent one fishery mission to Cameroun, a distillery mission to Rwanda, two handicrafts missions to the Central African Republic and Rwanda, and a couple of veterinary missions to Chad and Ethiopia. The Chinese say the missions have exceeded expectations in results. When they go to Africa, they maintain, they are not merely there to talk, but to work. “Show Them How” The guiding principle is: “Do not simply tell others how to do a job, but show them how to do it,” according to the Technical Co-operation Committee. In Taiwan, Africans attend courses on farming techniques and stay from five to eight months. Lectures are given on rice-growing methods, upland crops, vegetable growing and other agricultural topics. The Africans are expected to get out in the fields as well, and a great deal of the time is spent "on observa-

tion and practical work right on the farm.”

Part of the programme is sending Chinese to African countries to conduct feasibility studies or to explore potential fields for technical co-operation: or to make final arrangements for sending full-scale missions. These schemes have not been carried out without some cost in more than monetary terms to the Chinese. In one survey mission, China lost two of its top agricultural experts in a car accident in Togo in 1963. One was an outstanding expert on rice and the other a leading expert in irrigation. But it seems that the Government has every intention of pushing ahead and certainly the African countries are fully aware of the help that is available not only from the Republic of China, but also from Communist China.

No doubt this thought looms large in the minds of the Government in Taiwan. “The Chinese Government hopes that with the expanded programmes under study,

China can make substantial contributions to the economic advancement of the African countries by providing their people with knowledge and techniques with which they can confidently work for the betterment of their lives,” says the agency responsible. The Minister of Economic Affairs, Mr K. T. Li, made the point recently in a speech to the American University Club that the Republic of China has a dual role to play in international co-operation for the betterment of people’s living conditions. He noted that free China had been able to chalk up a rapid economic growth rate through the co-operation and assistance from abroad, paricularly from the United States. The Minister also said China could be of greater assistance to the developing nations than advanced nations “simply because we ourselves have gone through similar stages of development, and because our experiences are more readily adaptable to the needs of developing nations.”