Juncao has spread rapidly to more than 100 countries along the BRI

In Lesotho in southern Africa, a song was widely hummed by local women: "Some people say it is a wild crop, some people say it is the economic lifeline. Oh, see this crop, an amazing crop. It is food, medicine and hope."

The song, whose title means Seven-Day Mushroom in the Lesotho language, was written by women from Mabote Mushroom Association of Lesotho, and what it described is China's Juncao technology.

In Chinese, jun refers to mushrooms or fungi and cao means grass or herbaceous plant. When the two characters are put together, it refers to a technology that grows nutritious mushrooms using chopped grasses without cutting trees.

Juncao technology was invented by Chinese scientist Lin Zhanxi in 1986.

Lin said in the 1980s, the mushroom industry developed rapidly in China and became an important way for farmers to get escape poverty and gain a better living. Farmers cut down as many trees as they could, even small trees, to cultivate edible and medicinal mushrooms.

To avoid the conflict between mushroom industry development and forest resources protection, Lin started research in 1983, trying to find a sustainable way for the mushroom industry, testing on wild grass instead of wood logs or the sawdust of broad-leaved trees as mushroom substrate. Lin succeeded three years later, which led to the invention of Juncao technology.

With a history of progressive growth in 33 years, "Juncao industry gradually takes shape, with Juncao grass as the core, integrating its multiple and comprehensive applications as mushroom substrate, feed, fertilizer, biofuel, biomaterials, environment treatment and ecological control, and promotes sustainable development," Lin said.

He soke at a high-level meeting, Juncao Technology: Concrete Contribution of the Belt and Road Initiative toward Synergies with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Thursday.

In 2013, when China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI, eco-environmental protection was put forward as the integral part of the BRI.

And as a practical technology for green Belt and Road, Juncao technology has spread rapidly to more than 100 countries along the Belt and Road.

The application of Juncao technology has helped BRI countries and regions meet Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs, such as eliminating poverty and hunger, promoting food security, ensuring and increasing employment, tackling climate change and protecting the ecological environment, and helps the people get rid of poverty and live a better life, said Ma Zhaoxu, China's permanent representative to the UN.

Ma said, in 2017, under China-UN Peace and Development Fund announced by President Xi Jinping, a Juncao technology project was implemented. Through training courses, seminars and production demonstration, the project helps many developing countries strengthen capacity in implementing SDGs, thus making concrete contribution to synergies between the BRI and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.