"A Little Grass" Opens "Happiness Flower" Fungus on the "the Belt and Road" | United Nations | A Grass

The original "small grass" opens "happiness flower" on the "the Belt and Road"

In the scorching summer season, on the campus of Fujian A&F University, a four to five meter tall mushroom grass forest grows lush under the scorching sun. A batch of mushroom grass, deer antler and ganoderma lucidum, are growing rapidly under the shade of the mushroom grass forest.

Lin Zhanxu, a researcher at Fujian A&F University and chief scientist at the National Fungal Grass Engineering Technology Research Center, along with international student David, are inspecting the growth of this batch of fungal grass, Antlers Ganoderma lucidum, in the cultivation room.

Half a century ago, in order to help impoverished farmers lift themselves out of poverty and protect the ecological environment, Lin Zhanxu invented the mushroom grass technology of "replacing wood with grass" to cultivate edible mushrooms.

Over the years, this "small yet beautiful, quick to take effect, and beneficial to people's livelihoods" technology has spread from Fujian to the whole country and to the world.

A "happy grass"——

Let many countries along the "the Belt and Road" get rid of poverty

In the 1980s, the cultivation of edible mushrooms in mountainous areas of Fujian Province generally relied on wood as raw material, and farmers had to cut down trees to grow mushrooms. In order to solve the contradiction between mushroom and forest, Lin Zhanzhi began his research on cultivating edible fungi by replacing wood with grass. After success, mushroom and grass technology was quickly applied and promoted in Fujian.

In 1997, the mushroom grass technology was listed as a poverty alleviation cooperation project for the Fujian Ningxia region. Like the plot in the TV series "Mountain and Sea Love", Lin Zhanxu brought his team and six boxes of mushroom and grass seeds to Xihaigu, Ningxia, thousands of miles away from Fujian. At the same time, he also brought with him the technical methods of farmers who can understand, learn, and do it as soon as they see it.

The desert and Gobi are ecologically fragile. In just half a year, Lin Zhanxu overcame the difficulties and enabled the leading 27 farmers to earn over 2000 yuan per household from mushroom cultivation. Many farmers see a hundred yuan bill for the first time by growing mushrooms.

The poverty alleviation grass has bloomed the "happiness flower", and the mushroom grass is locally called the "happiness grass".

In the same year as going to Ningxia for poverty alleviation, Mushroom Grass also embarked on its overseas journey. At that time, in Papua New Guinea, which still needed to rely on nature for a living, Lin Zhanxu and his team conducted repeated experiments and in just two years, the "poverty alleviation grass" was able to take root in a foreign country.

Nowadays, the mushroom grass technology has been promoted to 8 provinces and 16 regions in Papua New Guinea, benefiting more than 8600 households. The mushroom and grass industry has also become the second pillar industry in the local area after coffee.

Not only Papua New Guinea has benefited. In Fiji, using mycorrhizal fungi as feed greatly reduces the mortality rate of cattle and sheep during the dry season; In Rwanda, mycorrhizal technology has doubled the income of over 30000 local farmers; In South Africa, as long as a farmer manages a 10 square meter mushroom factory well, they can get rid of poverty

"Chinese mushroom grass technology has bid farewell to poverty for many impoverished farmers, played a demonstrative role in poverty alleviation in Africa, and has influenced and spread to other neighboring countries." On July 10 this year, Lin Zhanxu shared how "Chinese grass" has grown into a "happy grass" that benefits multiple countries at a sub forum of the first high-level meeting of the Global Forum for Shared Development Action.

Through various forms of exchange and cooperation, such as organizing training courses on mycorrhizal technology, building demonstration bases for mycorrhizal technology, and collaborating with relevant departments of the United Nations to hold a series of seminars, Lin Zhanxu and his team have applied and promoted mycorrhizal technology in 106 countries and regions worldwide, creating hundreds of thousands of green employment opportunities in the local area. Fungal grass technology serves 13 out of the 17 sustainable development goals of the United Nations and has become one of the brands of China's agricultural aid for poverty alleviation.

At home and abroad, 328 sessions of mushroom grass technology training courses have been held, with 13631 students participating in the learning. Local residents in many countries along the "the Belt and Road" have embarked on the road to get rid of poverty due to fungus technology.

Emotionally connected, thousands of miles long——

Play a role in implementing the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

My name is Xu Yuqing, from Thailand;

I am Liang Huixin, from Malaysia;

I am Li Xiaolian from Myanmar

……

These overseas Chinese university students are becoming beneficiaries of the "the Belt and Road" initiative, and will also become important ambassadors to promote people to people and cultural exchanges between their countries and regions and China.

David, a Benin born African, is a doctoral student from Fujian A&F University. He has assisted in translation at the Fungal Grass Institute and this is his 11th year in China.

In the past 11 years, he went from an undergraduate student to a current doctoral student and participated several times in the promotion of mycorrhizal technology. At Fujian A&F University, Lin Zhanzhi's team has trained 26 doctoral and master's students who have played a positive role in local development after graduation and returning to China.

David said with emotion, "The the Belt and Road Initiative has given us more opportunities to study in China and has created many conveniences for us. When we first came to school, there were only more than 10 foreign students, but now there are more than 100."

David introduced in fluent Chinese that technical personnel from Benin had traveled thousands of miles to Fujian A&F University to study mushroom and grass technology. After returning to China, they achieved good profits through these technologies.

Moreover, as a traditional friendly country of China in West Africa, Benin has achieved many results in extensive cooperation with China in infrastructure construction, agriculture, and other fields.

David believes that the construction of the "the Belt and Road" has promoted mutual understanding and friendship between the Chinese and Malaysian people, especially in people to people and cultural exchanges, which has not only enhanced people to people ties, but also brought about improvements in tourism, education, art, medical care and other fields for the people.

"It can be said that it not only increases income, improves quality of life, but also enhances cognitive level," David said.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" initiative. After ten years of hard work, the scenery is just right. Developing the mushroom and grass industry for the benefit of all humanity, Lin Zhanxu, who is now 80 years old, still doesn't want to stop. Lin Zhanxi expressed that he believed that through the joint efforts of all, the fungus technology could make contributions to developing countries and countries along the "the Belt and Road", and play its due role in implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations.