A Ghanaian expert on Tuesday urged the country to learn from the history of China’s development and sacrifice to achieve its development goals, especially through agriculture to ensure food security.
Michael Abu Sakara Foster, an agronomist, said during a one-day roundtable dialogue organized by the Ghana-China Friendship Association that humanity has guided China’s development story, with the older generation sacrificing to lay a firm foundation for the future.
Foster stated that the Chinese remained committed to self-reliance, with the older generation sacrificing their comfort to ensure the self-sufficiency of future generations during hard times.
“The Chinese government implemented measures that established the fundamental basis for self-reliance, leading to their current achievement of food security,” he noted.
Moreover, according to him, the Chinese remained consistent from one leader to another, introducing development policies in phases until they achieved their goals.
“The key lessons from China are to prioritize people, lay foundations systematically, and persist through phases. So continuity, persistence, and matching it with investment is really the key,” Foster said.
He urged Ghanaian leaders to learn from the Chinese, return to fundamentals, and recognize the necessity of sacrifices in establishing a foundation for systematic development to build a pyramid of progress.
Foster said Ghana also needs to sacrifice temporary comfort to develop its entire agriculture value chain, with technology, irrigation, and equipment being the necessary inputs for transformation “which must be carried on the conveyor belt”. The transformation process, according to him, is the conveyor belt, “and the process must be kept moving and delivering on its objectives.”
“To achieve that means sacrifice, overcoming gravity, and overcoming our own inclinations and proclivities. And we must do that under a leadership that is driven by conviction, despite the political consequences,” he stressed.
Wu Jianrong, a Chinese agricultural engineer, cautioned that Ghana does not need to simply copy China’s agricultural development model, because China and Ghana have different climates, land tenure systems, and agricultural conditions.
“But China’s experience demonstrates one important principle: when agriculture is supported by technology, infrastructure, industry, and long-term policy commitment, it can become a powerful foundation for industrialization and national economic development,” Wu emphasized.
Going forward, he said the model for China-Ghana agricultural cooperation must shift from the traditional way of selling fertilizers, tractors, irrigation equipment, and agricultural machinery to investments in technology, training, management experience, processing capacity, and complete agricultural solutions in Ghana.
“This should be the next stage of China-Ghana agricultural cooperation: from trade to investment, products to solutions, farming to agricultural industrialization, and cooperation to a long-term strategic partnership,” Wu urged. Enditem
Source: Xinhua
