An inventor meets his invention again - only now it comes from China. An interview.

Scrap and metal scraps - Emmanuel Bobobee used them to build the first prototype of his greatest invention to date: the cassava harvester. This attachment is attached to the front of a tractor and helps with the cassava harvest. Bobobee is a professor at the Ghanaian Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and specializes in the development of agricultural machines. The 65-year-old has already built numerous prototypes that make it easier for farmers to work before, during and after the harvest.

Bobobee worked on his cassava harvester for years, showed interested parties how it worked, and had the development patented. And in the end I had to watch others imitate his development. Bobobee accuses Chinese engineers of stealing ideas - who now compete with him with their own product. What does that do to an inventor when your own idea gets a leg up - and despite its successful development, none of it remains? A short message interview.

[17:56, 11/05/2021] Emmanuel Bobobee I built
the first prototype of the cassava harvester in 1994 from scrap metal and scrap metal. It wasn't until 2009 that I was able to produce a new version with the help of subsidies and demonstrate how the machine works. The Ghanaian government was satisfied with the result and ordered 15 pieces to be distributed to farmers. Several international visitors, including Chinese delegations, came to my research farm. They wanted to see how the device worked. I thought this was a chance to promote my work and my university - until I saw the picture of a similar machine, it was a Chinese version of my invention.

[18:15, 11/05/2021] Florian Sturm
Mr. Bobobee, the idea was stolen from you. How did the pirated copy affect your project?

[18:20, 11/05/2021] Emmanuel Bobobee
My version is hardly known in Ghana. It can now happen that the Chinese government gives Ghana or another African country bilateral aid in the form of agricultural implements and delivers my invention as part of this package. And the African farmer doesn't know that a Ghanaian originally developed the machine.

[18:24, 11/05/2021] Emmanuel Bobobee
With its production power and state funds, it is easy for China to make the pirated copy known in Africa. I lose revenue as a result. And local scientists: inside and younger researchers, it will keep them from venturing into the difficult and unprofitable terrain of innovation.

"The African farmer doesn't know that a Ghanaian developed the machine."

[18:32, 11/05/2021] Emmanuel Bobobee
Even if the Chinese are notorious for imitating everything on the globe - cassava is an African plant and our government should do everything possible to bring an African invention to African farmers support financially.

[18:34, 11/05/2021] Florian Sturm
So you would have liked more support from your government?

[18:39, 11/05/2021] Emmanuel Bobobee
Yes. Either directly through the respective ministries or through partner