Celebrating 100th anniversary of CPC | Juncao program leads PNG’s women to prosperity

The first China-assisted overseas Juncao demonstration base landed in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in 2001.

Over the past 20 years, Chinese experts have continued to carry out training, demonstration and promotion of Juncao technology used in mushroom cultivation and livestock breeding in PNG's Eastern Highlands province, which provided a new way for local residents to get rid of poverty and even become rich.

The provincial government has regarded Juncao as its second-largest industry, following coffee industry, and labeled the development of Juncao as "an agricultural innovation".

Under the guidance of a team of Chinese experts, Zaka Abori, a housewife in the suburbs of Goroka, Eastern Highlands province, has been growing edible mushrooms with Juncao since February 2020. She earns an annual income of 15,000 kina (about $4,241.7) from mushroom farming, seven times the annual income of most families growing coffee and vegetables.

Growing mushroom with Juncao can not only provide delicious food and high-quality protein for my family, but also increase my income, she said, adding that she will continue the work and make it her career.

With the help of Chinese experts, Juncao program targeting poverty alleviation and development would surely be a success in PNG and around the world, Abori said.