In the field of rural development and tropical studies, programs involving international cooperation means, among other things, that a scholar has to constantly keep his/her feet on the ground. For rural development’s focus is not only the scholar’s interests but those of the people and communities that he/she studies as well. This fundamental principle - that scholars “be strongly conscious of themselves who lives in the area of his/her study field” - must always be kept in mind.
This principle was that guided the author's involvement with the participatory action research on rural development in Bangladesh which is a project sponsored by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). More concretely, the author has discovered that this principle is best expressed by the viewpoint ZAICHISEI (to exist locally). ZAICHISEI has enabled me to blend past experiences with new ones; something akin to mixing past and present colors in order to come out with an entirely new watercolor painting. This is what real development is all about - to introduce progress into communities by mainly relying on “locally existing” technologies and practices. Under ZAICHISEI, farmers are encouraged to preserve and continue employing traditional technologies. It is however important to distinguish “locally existing” technologies with “traditional” technologies. The latter refers to technologies and practices of the past which, because they are of a bygone era, is appreciated for being not changed.
This paper will attempt to show a typical example of locally existing technologies as they are applied to (a) traditional rice cultivation as well as the cultivation of modern rice varieties during dry season, (b) two times transplanting in deep water rice cultivation, and (c) the protection of embankment-erosion by river. This paper argues that studying local existing technologies require a research approach informed by an independent attitude that recognizes the realities of the “area” and the people in it. This approach is what makes tropical study in the field of the international cooperation a real pleasure to undertake. It is also what makes rural development research a meaningful endeavor.

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Africa is the largest continent in the Southern Hemisphere. It has enormous ecological diversity, embracing two temperate zones, two subtropical zones and a tropical region. This geographical situation allows people in Africa to grow diversified crops. The 655 million Africans are largely agriculturally based. The main foods consist of the coarse grains (sorghum, millet, maize), wheat, rice, root and tuber crops (yam, cassava, sweet potato, potato, and taro); Asian rice is the preferred cereal and now replaces the indigenous African rice species.
In order to solve the food problem of the increasing population, efforts have been made to increase rice production in most African countries. Republic of China on Taiwan has been one of the countries which extended technical assistance to Africa to help increase rice production. During the past 39 years, through the Committee of International Technical Cooperation and International Cooperation and Development Fund, Republic of China on Taiwan devoted a large number of Chinese specialists and technicians in oversea service across six geographical regions. Taiwan's agricultural cooperation projects in Africa began in 196L with agricultural technical mission sent to Liberia. In the following years, 23 missions were stationed in Africa, though some were withdrawn later. As of May 1., 2001, eight missions are still operating in African countries.
During the past 39 years, the agricultural technical missions in Africa reclaimed a total of 28,631. hectares of rice fields in 24 African countries. They also built a total of 2,784 Km of irrigation canals and a total of 1,524 km of drainage canals, which enabled to irrigate a total of 18,244 hectares of rice fields in 24 countries. This infrastructure building in the past years played an important role to promote the ability ofrice production in the African countries.
In this paper, a special focus is placed on the Taiwan assisted rice production in 13 African countries, including Burkina Faso, Chad, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Benin, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritius, Niger and Senegal. Taiwan model of rice production in Africa, with regards to the past achievements and difficulties encountered in technology transfer, and the perspectives of future cooperation in rice production between Republic of China on Taiwan and African countries are discussed.

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