In the Central African Republic (CAR), Irene Dombeti counts herself among the lucky few with knowledge of how to grow mushrooms sustainably and technologically.
She spent one and half months in China studying edible and medicinal mushroom technology. When she returned to CAR, she realized that people were less interested in using technology to grow mushrooms.
“They said that mushroom grows naturally, so they are not interested in mushroom technology,” Dombeti said.
Then Chinese specialists arrived and introduced the Juncao technology which refers to planting a grass named Juncao with strong adaptability to the environment and rich nutrition while using processed Juncao grass to cultivate edible and medicinal fungi and raise poultry and livestock, said Chen Kehua who introduced the project in CAR.
Chen held 16 training courses on Juncao with 613 trainees and succeeded to involve five cooperatives in mushroom cultivation and four cooperatives in raising livestock with Juncao grass.
A Chinese expert cultivates fungi with local people in Bangui, Central African Republic, on June 1, 2022. (Xinhua/Luo Yu)
The team has planted 3 hectares of Juncao grass while helping local farmers to plant 10 hectares.
Farmers in the country realized that grass, which is trivial and even negligible for most people, could change their lives and country.
“Gradually in seeing what we are doing, they are now starting to adapt to mushroom cultivation because the mushrooms that we are growing here with technology are good mushrooms, which taste good and then it attracts people, they are now much interested,” added Dombeti who now works as laboratory technician of the Institute for Agricultural Research in CAR.
Fatime Abba Rekya, 40, an agronomist and mushroom producer, was among the first to develop interest in the Chinese-invented technology.
