Tens of thousands of farmers in Pacific island countries are seeing their income surge as training programs and agricultural technologies from China enable them to plant mushrooms on dried and chopped grass.
The China-Pacific Island Countries Poverty Alleviation and Cooperative Development Center in east China's Fuzhou City, Fujian Province is among the multiple cooperation mechanisms China has established for helping Pacific Island Countries alleviate poverty.
Since its launch two years ago, the center has facilitated online training and study tours on poverty alleviation strategies for Pacific island countries.
"We have structured our training programs around four key areas: agriculture, industrial development, tourism, and social security. Currently, our primary focus is on agricultural poverty reduction. We have conducted several training sessions on this, reaching now 100 participants from more than 10 countries," said Zhuang Peifen, head of the center.
The center has contributed to expanding business ties and facilitating cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and Pacific island countries.
It also helped promote international cooperation on Juncao technology, a farming model that enables farmers to grow mushrooms on dried and chopped grass.
"We not only provide theoretical teaching, but also hands-on training. Juncao technology was unfamiliar to the locals at first, but it has now become a household name," said Lin Zhansen, leader of the China-Pacific Island Countries' Juncao Technology Demonstration Center.
"Roughly, we are training about 3,000 to 4,000 people a year globally now. Among them about 30 percent are from the Pacific island countries," said Lin Dongmei, deputy head of China's National Engineering Research Center of Juncao Technology.
According to participating mushroom farmers, they can generate income in seven to 10 days after planting mushroom substrate packs.
In Fiji, a farmer can harvest 1,200 kilograms of mushrooms a year on only 10 square meters of land, generating about 9,000 U.S. dollars in income.
In Papua New Guinea, by the end of 2023, Juncao technology had been disseminated to eight provinces, benefiting more than 60,000 people.
"Mushroom farming is simple and easy to learn, yet with fast and good results. I earned 2,500 (U.S. dollars) from the first batch of mushroom substrates and bought appliances, mats, cooking pot, food and clothes for my family," said Seruwaia Waiti Kabukabu, a Fijian farmer.
China has implemented nearly 500 projects across Pacific island countries, and also trained about 10,000 local professionals in various fields.
China helps Pacific island farmers increase income with farming technology, training programs
A Chinese envoy urged the United States on Friday to desist from undermining international solidarity, creating division and antagonism, and provoking bloc confrontations on the Ukraine crisis.
"In the ongoing Ukraine crisis, there has been a steady influx of large quantities of weapons and ammunition into the battlefield," which will only lead to escalated situation and the loss of more civilian lives, Geng Shuang, China's deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said at the UN Security Council briefing on arms supply to Ukraine.
High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Izumi Nakamitsu said at the meeting that any transfer of weapons and ammunition must comply with the applicable international legal framework and Security Council's resolutions. She called on all parties to act in accordance with international humanitarian law, protect civilians and civilian facilities, and resolve the current conflict through political means at an early date.
In the discussion that followed, Vasily Nebenzya, Russian permanent representative to the UN, said that using long-range missiles supplied by Western countries to strike Russia will result in severe consequences. He reiterated that Russia is open to negotiations with Ukraine, while the Western nations are unwilling to engage in dialog.
In response to remarks by the U.S. representative, Geng emphasized that "China did not create the Ukraine crisis, much less are we a party to the conflict."
China has not supplied weapons to either party, and has consistent and rigorous controls over dual-use items, said Geng, adding China maintains normal trade and economic cooperation with all countries around the world, including Russia and Ukraine.
He called on the parties to the conflict to demonstrate their political will, meet each other halfway, put an early end to the hostilities, and relaunch peace talks. He also called on the international community to pave the way to this end by providing tangible assistance and facilitation, and urged all parties concerned to put peace and humanity first and re-channel their resources and energy to ending hostilities through diplomacy.
Underscoring that China's position on the Ukraine issue "is objective and impartial," the ambassador said that for over two years, China has been working hard to promote peace and encourage and facilitate peace talks.
He elaborated the efforts made by China and other countries on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis, including the six-point consensus jointly issued by China and Brazil in May this year. This fully demonstrates that diplomatic negotiations and a political settlement meet the common expectations of the majority of countries and represent the will of the international community, Geng added.
"We hope that the United States will not continue to turn a deaf ear to these calls for peace, that it will desist from discrediting and obstructing the diplomatic efforts of China and other countries concerned, undermining international solidarity, creating division and antagonism, and provoking bloc confrontations, and that it will truly play a constructive role in bringing an early end to the war and achieving peace," Geng said.
Chinese envoy urges US to desist from creating antagonism
