Chinese Juncao technology offers hope to Pacific islanders

With the China-Pacific Island Countries Juncao Technology Demonstration Center put into use recently, more Pacific islanders  are benefiting from planting Juncao, a new type of Chinese grass that can be used to cultivate edible and medicinal mushrooms. 

In some Pacific Island countries, Juncao is honored as "a grass of happiness", as it has helped them boost grain production and reduce poverty. 

According to Lin Dongmei, deputy head of the China National Engineering Research Center of Juncao Technology, the newly launched demonstration center grew out of the China-assisted Fiji Juncao technology center and will benefit more Pacific Island countries and become a promotion center of the technology. 

The demonstration center will offer training programs and seminars on the technology, which grows edible and medicinal mushrooms among other things. The Chinese experts in the center can provide short-term technical guidance for the neighboring countries, Lin noted. 

China has introduced Juncao technology to more than 100 countries and regions, seeing it become a Chinese brand for foreign aid programs. 

Early in 2001, the first China-aided Juncao demonstration center abroad was launched in the Eastern Highlands Province of Papua New Guinea. Over the past 20-plus years, with the support of the Chinese expert team, local people have embarked on a new path out of poverty and toward prosperity. 

Lin mentioned a story of a Juncao planter named Elizabeth. The woman named her younger sister "Juncao" to express her family's gratitude for the changes brought about by the technology. 

"Through technical training and guidance, we help local farmers and vulnerable groups master new skills and create employment opportunities. This is a project worth long-term commitment," Lin explained. 

Lin added that Juncao planting has been developed into a green and circular industry, which can grow mushrooms and feed livestock, reducing the demand for imported mushrooms and meat in these countries. It can also help control soil erosion.   

The Juncao technology promoted in Pacific Island countries has supported those countries' sustainable development, which is a manifestation of an old Chinese saying: It is better to teach a person to fish than to just give him fish, said Chen Hong, executive director of the Asia-Pacific Studies Center at East China Normal University in Shanghai, in an interview.