If there is any country which has made the most significant leap in national growth and global significance in the last half century, it has to be China.

Having made significant strides in virtually every area of national life, China has in the last decade emerged as a key global agricultural nation that Ghana and other developing countries could emulate in their quest to emerge as globally significant agricultural nations themselves.

Despite initially struggling with bouts of food shortages in the twentieth century, China is currently estimated to be directly responsible for feeding 22 percent of the world population with only seven percent of the planet’s arable land.

With very little arable land at her disposal, the Chinese ensure that whatever space they have available is heavily utilized for agriculture. Vegetables are planted on road embankments, in traffic triangles and right up the walls of many buildings.

Even so since 1949 China has lost one fifth of its arable land. Only about 10 to 15 percent of the land in China is good for agriculture (compared to 1 percent in Saudi Arabia, 50 percent in India, 20 percent in the United States, and 32 percent in France).

China is rated the world’s top consumer of meat and grain; and with an ever increasing consumption of cooking oil and meat, the country has seen a sharp rise in the demand for soybeans as an oil source and feed for livestock.

Agricultural Regions in China

A great percentage of the country is agriculturally unproductive. Arable land is concentrated in a band of river valleys and along the southern and eastern coasts of the Asian country.

Wheat, corn, soybeans, barley, sorghum, millet are grown in the north and central China. Rice is the dominate crop in the south. Some places produce double crops of rice. Most crops for export are grown in the coastal areas. These areas have relatively good roads and access to ports used for exporting produce.The Northern Plain, which includes Beijing, is home to 65 percent of China’s agriculture as it produces half of China’s wheat and corn.

The Yangtze River delta is another important agricultural area. It is home to 30 million people and fertile soils produce a tenth of the country’s crops. The crop yields there are expected to decline as large scale industries expand from nearby Shanghai and occupy productive agricultural land.

China is very mountainous. A lot of slopes and hillsides have terraces built on them so crops, particularly rice, can be grown on them. In barren Qinghai province, the only locally-grown food is raised in crude greenhouse made from plastic stretched over a bamboo frames.

Fertilizer use

Chinese farmers have a huge appetite for Fertilizers. It is estimated that China consumes more than 25.4 million tons of nitrogenous fertilizers yearly, which represents 30 percent of total world consumption and more than double the consumption of other major users such as India and the United States. This includes 9.9 million tons of phosphate fertilizers (29.5 percent of the world total) and 4.2 million tons of potash fertilizers (18.2 percent of the world total).

Crop pollution challenge  

Despite a fledging agricultural sector, China has had to grapple with huge concerns over food safety caused by pesticide abuse from some quarters. Most crops in China are raised with pesticides, chemical fertilizers and sewage sludge. Fertilizer is subsidized and is cheaper than its real cost.

Chinese farmers enjoy the services of cutting-edge agricultural research centers and laboratories that do research and churn out piles of data on the latest fertilizers, pollution risks and genetically-engineered crops.

The bottleneck that confronts these research centers is that the data and insights these researchers come up with rarely finds its way to farmers, who mostly rely on the pesticide and fertilizer salesmen to keep them informed.

To help stem the spiraling incidences of crop pollution, the Chinese government has developed a Green Food program where produce is certified for low pesticide input. This has been articulated into Green food Grade A and Grade AA. This Green Food AA standard has been aligned with IFOAM international standards for organic farming and has formed the basis of the swift growth of organic agriculture in China.

Cross border agriculture

In what is a radical measure aimed at guaranteeing food security for its mammoth population, Chinese investors have taken to buying and in most cases renting sprawling fields for crop cultivation and other agricultural endeavors in neighboring countries like Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Though Beijing has refused to consider the trend as a solution to its food safety concerns for being “an unreliable policy”, many wealthy Chinese individuals and corporations have invested in the trend which has been termed “mega farming”

“We don’t believe that going to rent and farm in other countries is a reliable policy option,” a Chinese government official said recently.

Support for Ghanaian agric

Ghana and china share historic Relations dating back to 1960 when the countries first established diplomatic relations. Since then, Ghana has provided considerable diplomatic support to China with the country reciprocating with funding for key areas like the agricultural sector.

Late last year, China, through its grants for agricultural development in the Ghana, donated  13 sets of corn grinders, two sets of soya bean flour milling machines as well as one set of millet milling machine to the Development Authority in charge of the Northern Savannah zone.

During a short presentation formality, the Chinese Ambassador to Ghana at the time, Sun Baohong, praised the government of Ghana for launching such initiatives as “One District-One Factory”; “One Village-One Dam”; and “Planting for Food and Jobs”, while assuring the country of Chinas unwavering commitment to helping Ghana succeed in agriculture.

“Over the years, China and Ghana have conducted win-win and fruitful cooperation in agriculture. China provides a good number of training opportunities to Ghana for bringing up the agriculture talents that will one day lead an increasingly expanding local agricultural industry.

A number of Chinese enterprises are also here investing in agriculture, from planting to processing. As an important partner, China will strengthen cooperation with Ghana in agriculture in the future,” she concluded.

The forgoing demonstration of support by the Chinese for Ghanaian agriculture is only a fraction of the immense effort the Asian powerhouse has invested in Ghanaian agriculture.

Indeed China appears to be Ghana’s new found best-friend, and the “love affair” between the two countries looks destined for unprecedented heights, particularly in agriculture.

country that easily rubs shoulders with greats like the United States and Canada.

Hard work, focus and resilience are strewn all over the story of China’s emergence from the dark days of famine to brighter days of food security. A worthy example is always worth emulating; and with an ally that has one of the most inspiring grass to grace stories, Ghana should perhaps pay as much attention to China’s resilient rise to the top than it does loan and grant acquisition-this is the most realistic way to emerge victorious from the many challenges that has serially impeded the growth of our local agricultural industry.

Despite this obvious snag in the countries wheel of progress, Japan has demonstrated an uncommon resilience that today, her agriculture sector is enjoying a steady rise that experts believe could see the country rival other traditional agricultural heavyweight like China and Brazil.

Agriculture exists in every part of Japan, but is especially important on the northern island of Hokkaido, which accounts for 10% of national production. Since World War II (1939–45), modern methods, including commercial fertilizers, insecticides, hybrid seeds, and machinery, have been used so effectively that harvests increased substantially through the 1970s.

Overproduction of rice, as a result of overplanting and a shift to other foods by the Japanese people, led the government in 1987 to adopt a policy of decreasing rice planting and increasing the acreage of other farm products. For many years, the government restricted imports of cheaper foreign rice, but in 1995 the rice market was opened to imports, as the government implemented the Uruguay Round agreement on agriculture.

As a result of the US-occupation land reform, which began in late 1946, nearly two-thirds of all farmland was purchased by the Japanese government at low prewar prices and resold to cultivators on easy terms. By the 1980s, nearly all farms were owner-operated, as compared with 23% before reform. A more telling trend in recent years has been the sharp growth in part-time farm households. Farmers are aging, and 77% of farm income is derived from other sources, such as industrial jobs. Although agriculture accounts for only 2% of GDP, about 10% of the population lives on farms.

Rice is supreme

Rice is by far the most important crop in Japan and planted on the best agricultural land. Other crops grown in Japan include soybeans, wheat, barley, and a large variety of fruit and vegetables.

Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery (MAFF) has a Crop Production branch that collects agricultural data at the prefecture level, monitors crop development using weather data and satellite imagery, and publishes crop estimates. Rice forecasts are made in August and October, with final estimates coming out in December. Production data for minor crops (wheat, soybeans) are collected after the harvest and published in December.

Emphasis on Quality

The quality of the impressive automobiles and household electronics that the world has come to acknowledge japan for is reflected in the countries insistence on quality agricultural produce. Consumers in Japan are highly sensitive to quality issues in their food, demanding fresh, uncontaminated, and attractive products. In Japan, many of the convenience store chains are very important outlets for moderately priced pre-cooked meals. These are prepared at central locations and delivered daily (sometimes more often), and the quality is very high.

Niigata, Japan’s largest rice-growing prefecture strongly promotes the locally-grown rice and is branding itself as a center of farming and fine cuisine. Last year, Niigata opened an innovative, high-tech education center designed to teach children (and adults) about farming, cooking, and nutrition, and the city sponsors food festivals each year.

The per capita consumption of rice has been dropping for decades due to urbanization, adoption of western foods, and an aging population, but it remains the most important grain in their diet. The Japanese strongly prefer to eat the native Japonica (sticky) rice.

Innovation

Like many of the world’s leading agricultural nations, japan has prioritized innovations that are unique to the country’s agricultural development needs.

Top of the pile of these indigenous innovations is a robotic wolf designed to protect farms from natural pests and maximize harvest.

According to a recent BBC report initial tests have proved successful and could be set for production in commercial quantities in a matter of weeks.

 Its manufacturers say the robot wolf which will cost around $4,840 will be powered by solar-rechargeable batteries and has a range of howl noises so that animal threats don’t become accustomed to it.

The Japan Agricultural Cooperatives in acknowledging the importance of the new invention pointed that crop losses has remarkably shrunk in regions where the “Super Monster Wolf” has been station since preliminary trials began late 2017.

Before its introduction, The Japan Agricultural Cooperatives remarks that previously, farmers around the country’s Kisarazu were hapless against wild boars that destroyed local farms with reckless-abandon and ensured farmers perennially lost a substantial part of their crops prior to harvest.

The “Super Monster Wolf” device has an effective radius of about one kilometer; a feature that makes it more effective than an electric fence.

Another interesting way the Japanese are foraying into agricultural excellence is through an effective use of the internet. Though the country is challenged by an ageing farmer population and youth apathy for agriculture, there seems to be a ray of hope for the country’s agriculture as some youth have begun latching on to an agric-blogging fad that serves to tap into the incredible influence of the internet.

In a move that has been hailed as the solution that will make agriculture in japan more appealing to the youth,  an increasing  horde  of youngsters have taken advantage of the internet and are on the path to creating an attractive image of agriculture that will reverse the youth apathy trend in the Asian country.

Though the youth don’t fancy traditional peasant farming that the older Japanese population had practiced for centuries, blogging about agriculture and selling agricultural produce to online customers is proving attractive to the youth who are consistently seeking innovative ways of attracting more traffic to their personalized online platforms by giving potential clients helpful information on the products they sell through the conduit.

Local authorities are pleased with the development and are extremely hopeful that they can take advantage of the unprecedented youth interest in agriculture to fill the void expected to be created by its current aging farming population who have sustained the countries agriculture since time immemorial.

High-Tech Agriculture

The Japanese have taken a high tech approach to agriculture as they have with everything else. The country is miles ahead in biotechnology; they grow their rice with an amazing variety of mini-machines, including mechanical rice transplanters and harvesters, helicopter spraying, vinyl sheeting, concrete banked paddies and massive use of chemical fertilizer.”

The Japanese have produced a tomato plant that bears 10,000 tomatoes with the aid of a rotating-lens system that filters out harmful sun rays and focused beneficial rays where they are needed most. One tomato plant at the Tsukuba Science Expo in Japan produced 16,897 individual tomatoes.

The modernization of rice paddy agriculture includes consolidating small fields into large ones, replacing open canals with underground drainage pipes, installing pumps to pump in water and periodic draining of the paddies. These changes have made the paddies easier for farmers to work.

Japan has been producing the square watermelons since the 1980s. They are grown in tempered glass cases and sell for around $80 a piece.

Biofarms in which temperature, humidity and light are controlled by computers permits managed growth of plants and vegetables. In Mie Prefecture, farmers are using remote-controlled cameras and instruments that measure temperature, daylight hours and water content of the soil to determine whether trees need special assistance such watering, to help fight pests and diseases and choose the right time to pick crops.

Mebiol Inc. is marketing a hydrogel film in which seeds can be planed and seedlings can be grown with very little water. The material can retain large amounts of water. The film is only 0.06 millimeters thick and allows water and nutrients to permeate through it but blocks viruses and germs. The technology is particularly useful in desert environments.

Mito-based Pattruss Inc. has recently also developed a pyramid-shaped plastic package that doubles the shelf life of lettuce and other agricultural products. Patented in 2007, the packaging is already widely used in southern Europe where people like a lot of fresh greens in their salads.

Support for Ghanaian agriculture  

Japan is a great ally of the Ghanaian agricultural sector with a lengthy history of support. Through a grant assistance, which started in 1981, the government of Japan has contributed to the Ghanaian government’s efforts to mechanize agriculture and ensure food security, particularly rice production.

Recently, the Embassy of Japan handed over agricultural machinery under Japan’s Grant Assistance for underprivileged farmers in the country.

A statement issued by the embassy indicated that a total Grant which is ￥330,000,000 (approximately 9.7 million Ghana Cedis) had been disbursed alongside  machinery comprising 77 agricultural tractors with matching implements, 49 power tillers, 20 rice threshers, 11 rice reapers and six rice mills.

Annually, Japan invests huge sums and equipment into Ghanaian agriculture, particularly the area of rice farming.

Lessons for Ghana

The resilience of japan en route to its current status 0n the world agricultural scene is full of practical lessons for Ghana to emulate. Indeed if a country with as little arable land as japan is able to stand out in agriculture, then Ghana should be doing a great deal than what we currently have achieved in agriculture.

The brilliant innovation that employs the use of a wolf-like robot to scare off crop pest is particularly interesting and must serve as a challenge to our local industry to train young Ghanaians with technological expertise to create such simple yet realistic agri-solutions that will propel agriculture in Ghana towards development.

It is obvious from the achievement of countries like japan, that the future of agriculture is innovative technology. We must embrace this reality and work towards encouraging our youth particularly, to use the internet for productive initiatives akin to what their Japanese counterparts are doing. This could prove a panacea for the perennial challenges of unemployment and youth apathy for agriculture.

India is famous for gifting the world the knowledge and charisma of Mahatma Gandhi as well as the exhilarating movies of Bollywood.

As well as being largely known around the world for the aforementioned, the country has made a significant leap in the last two decades that today, she is considered an agricultural great worthy of emulation.

India’s agriculture is composed of many crops, with the foremost food staples being rice and wheat. Indian farmers also grow pulses, potatoes, sugarcane, oilseeds, and such non-food items as cotton, tea, coffee, rubber.

According to recent FAO world agriculture statistics, India is the world’s largest producer of many fresh fruits and vegetables, milk, major spices, select fibrous crops such as jute, staples such as millets and castor oil seed. India is the second largest producer of wheat and rice, the world’s major food staples.

India is the world’s second or third largest producer of several dry fruits, agriculture-based textile raw materials, roots and tuber crops, pulses, farmed fish, eggs, coconut, sugarcane and numerous vegetables .

Agriculture is crucial to India’s burgeoning economy- and statistics point to even better days for the country in the near-future. Over 58 per cent of the rural families in India depend on agriculture as their primary means of income. The Indian food industry is poised for huge growth, increasing its contribution to world food trade every year due to its immense potential for value addition, particularly within the food processing industry. The Indian food and grocery market is the world’s sixth largest, with retail contributing 70 per cent of the sales.

Market Dimension

During 2017-18 crop year, food grain production is expected to reach a record 277.49 million tonnes-a figure that has seen a marginal improvement from 275.68 million tonnes   only a year ago.

India has been the world’s largest producer of milk for the last two decades and contributes 19 per cent of the world’s total milk production.

India is emerging as the export hub of instant coffee which has led to exports of coffee increase 17 per cent in calendar year 2017 to reach US$ 958.80 million. Tea exports from India reached a 36 year high of 240.68 million kgs in CY 2017.

India topped the list of shrimp exporters globally in 2016 with exports of US$ 3.8 billion which are expected to double to US$ 7 billion by 2022.

Total area in India, sown with rabi crops reached 64.29 million hectares in February 2018.

India is the second largest fruit producer in the world. India’s horticulture output reached 300.64 million tonnes in 2016-17 and is expected to reach 305.43 million tonnes in 2017-18.

Agricultural export constitutes 10 per cent of the country’s exports and is the fourth-largest exported principal commodity. Agricultural exports from India reached US$ 28.09 billion during April 2017-January 2018 with exports of basmati, buffalo meat reaching US$ 6.19 billion and US$ 6.59 billion, respectively.

India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of spices and spice products. Spice exports from India grew by 6 per cent year-on-year between April-September 2017 to US$ 1.37 billion.

According to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), the Indian agricultural services and agricultural machinery sectors have cumulatively attracted Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) equity inflow of about US$ 2.02 billion and US$ 466.31 million, respectively, during April 2000 to December 2017. The food processing sector attracted FDI of US$ 8.37 billion in the same period.

Some major investments and developments in agriculture are as follows:

The first mega food park in Rajasthan was inaugurated in March 2018.

Sugar production in India is expected to reach 27.2 million tonnes in 2017-18 season (October-September).

In January 2018, India Agri Business Fund II (IABF-II), co-sponsored by Rabobank, the UK’s CDC Group and Asian Development Bank (ADB), made an investment worth US$ 10 million for a minority stake in Global Gourmet Pvt Ltd, a frozen food products exporting company.

A loan agreement of US$ 318 million was signed between the Government of India, Government of Tamil Nadu and the World Bank in December 2017 for the ‘Tamil Nadu Irrigated Agriculture Modernization Project’ through which is expected to benefit around 500,000 farmers in the state.

Cotton output in India is expected to increase by 9 per cent in 2017-184 to 37.7 million bales.

Government interventions

Some of the recent major government initiatives in the sector are as follows:

In March 2018, the Government of India extended the urea subsidy to the farmers till 2020 with the aim of ensuring supply of urea at statutory controlled prices. Urea subsidy for 2018-19 is estimated at Rs 45,000 crore (US$ 6.95 billion).

As of March 2018, the Government is working on a plan to provide air cargo support to promote agriculture exports from India.

The Government of India is going to provide Rs 2,000 crore (US$ 306.29 million) for computerisation of Primary Agricultural Credit Society (PACS) to ensure cooperatives are benefitted through digital technology.

Around 100 million Soil Health Cards (SHCs) have been distributed in the country during 2015-17 and a soil health mobile app has been launched to help Indian farmers.

With an aim to boost innovation and entrepreneurship in agriculture, the Government of India is introducing a new AGRI-UDAAN programme to mentor start-ups and to enable them to connect with potential investors.

The Government of India has launched the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana (PMKSY) with an investment of Rs 50,000 crore (US$ 7.7 billion) aimed at development of irrigation sources for providing a permanent solution from drought.

The Government of India plans to triple the capacity of food processing sector in India from the current 10 per cent of agriculture produce and has also committed Rs 6,000 crore (US$ 936.38 billion) as investments for mega food parks in the country, as a part of the Scheme for Agro-Marine Processing and Development of Agro-Processing Clusters (SAMPADA).

The Government of India has allowed 100 per cent FDI in marketing of food products and in food product e-commerce under the automatic route.

A new platform for selling agricultural produce named e-RaKam has been launched by the Government of India and will operate as a joint initiative of Metal Scrap Trade Corporation Limited and Central Railside Warehouse Company Limited (CRWC).

Good prospects

India is expected to achieve the ambitious goal of doubling farm income by 2022. The agriculture sector in India is expected to generate better momentum in the next few years due to increased investments in agricultural infrastructure such as irrigation facilities, warehousing and cold storage. Furthermore, the growing use of genetically modified crops will likely improve the yield for Indian farmers. India is expected to be self-sufficient in pulses in the coming few years due to concerted efforts of scientists to get early-maturing varieties of pulses and the increase in minimum support price.

The government of India targets to increase the average income of a farmer household at current prices to Rs 219,724 (US$ 3,420.21) by 2022-23 from Rs 96,703 (US$ 1,505.27) in 2015-16.

Going forward, the adoption of food safety and quality assurance mechanisms such as Total Quality Management (TQM) including ISO 9000, ISO 22000, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Good Hygienic Practices (GHP) by the food processing industry will offer several benefits.

 Irrigation structures

Indian irrigation infrastructure includes a network of major and minor canals from rivers, groundwater well-based systems, tanks, and other rainwater harvesting projects for agricultural activities. Of these, the groundwater system is the largest. Of the 160 million hectares of cultivated land in India, about 39 million hectare can be irrigated by groundwater wells and an additional 22 million hectares by irrigation canals. In 2010, only about 35% of agricultural land in India was reliably irrigated. About 2/3rd cultivated land in India is dependent on monsoons. The improvements in irrigation infrastructure in the last 50 years have helped India improve food security, reduce dependence on monsoons, improve agricultural productivity and create rural job opportunities. Dams used for irrigation projects have helped provide drinking water to a growing rural population, control flood and prevent drought-related damage to agriculture.

Organic Agriculture

Organic agriculture has huge historic ramifications for India. Having fed India for centuries, the country has made sure that a budding organic farming sector is in place and thriving despite the widespread use of synthetic agrochemicals in the country currently.

India has 6,50,000 organic producers, which is more than that of any other country. India also has 4 million hectares of land certified as organic wild culture, which is third in the world (after Finland and Zambia ).

As India struggles to get its animal husbandry sector going, the more rewarding option of producing protein rich cattle, fish and poultry feed using biogas /methane/natural gas by cultivating Methylococcus capsulatus bacteria with tiny land and water foot print has emerged a solution for guaranteeing sufficient protein rich food to the population.

Productivity

Although India has attained self-sufficiency in food staples, the productivity of its farms is below that of Brazil, the United States, France and other nations. Indian wheat farms, for example, produce about a third of the wheat per hectare per year compared to farms in France. Rice productivity in India was less than half that of China. Other staples productivity in India is similarly low. Indian total factor productivity growth remains below 2% per annum; in contrast, China’s total factor productivity growth is about 6% per annum, even though China also has smallholding farmers. Several studies suggest India could eradicate hunger and malnutrition and be a major source of food for the world by achieving productivity comparable with other countries.

Pesticide use and crop safety

The importance of pesticides for agriculture is enormous because they are considered as one of the major tools to protect crops and increase the yield. In In India today, the crop protection products sector is a fast developing industry, which is open to innovation. The pesticides market is also propelled by factors like growing population, and the need for minimizing crop damage. The opportunity lies in developing and executing innovative farming solutions that address the needs of the Indian farmer with very low landholding size, resources and knowhow available to him. India has to ensure food security for population of 1.21 billion while facing reduction in cultivable land resource. With increasing population, demand for food grains is increasing at a faster pace as compared to its production. This necessitates the use of pesticides or crop protection chemicals in a judicious manner within the confines of a regulatory framework of the country.

The Crop protection industry in India has been facing major challenges like influx of counterfeiting of crop protection solutions, which affects food production, the health of farmers and consumers, and the overall environment. In India, spurious pesticides constitute 25 % of the pesticide market. The other vital issues of pesticides industry such as prevention of use of spurious pesticides, quality standards, testing, review of use of pesticides, to create awareness about judicious use of pesticides among the farmer community are supervised by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation(DAC).

Support for Ghana agriculture

Ghana and India share ties that have endured nearly a century. This longstanding relationship with India has seen Ghana benefit so much –particularly in the area of support for her vibrant agricultural sector.

Last year Ghana signed a number of partnership agreements with India to boost the supply of agricultural machinery, credit advancement to farmers and scientific cooperation.

The agreements which involved other African countries keen to develop their agriculture were hinged on the supply of farm machinery and adequate training on usage and maintenance.

In his remarks, State Minister of Agriculture, Chimanbhai Dharamshibai Shaparia , said “We feel the areas identified for cooperation could raise agricultural productivity in Africa and we want to ensure that capacity building is given full priority.”

Similarly, The Indian High Commissioner to Ghana, His Excellency Birender Singh, has recently reiterated his government readiness to support Ghana’s agriculture.

Mr. Birender Singh identified areas of agro processing, agric mechanization as well as services and maintenance as the capacities that the Indian government could help Ghana improve.

His Excellency Birender Singh gave the indication during a courtesy call on the Minister of Food and Agriculture, Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto.

The forgoing is only a microcosm of the huge investments that India continues to make in the Ghanaian agri sector.

One would hope that Ghana will take full advantage of the enormous support being received and use same to propel the Planting for Food and Jobs initiatives of government which has the potential of propelling our agriculture to stellar heights.

About the Writer:

Alberta Nana Akyaa Akosa is the Lead Consultant at Agrihouse Communications, the premier data-driven agro Public Relations, Media Relations and Events Management firm. She is also the Founder of Agrihouse Foundation, a non-governmental capacity building organization, with a special focus on agro-based youth mentorship and leadership grooming, agribusiness development through the organization of exhibitions, training programs, research, agri-trade relations and promotions.