Imran hails Chinese methods for addressing food security, poverty

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday praised China’s innovative Juncao technology and described it as a method to help address poverty and food security — two major challenges for developing countries.

“Such innovative, affordable and eco-friendly technologies may help catalyse our progress towards achieving the first two sustainable development goals: no poverty and zero hunger,” the Prime Minister said in his video message screened at the 20th Anniversary of Juncao Assistance and Sustainable Development Cooperation.

Juncao, enthusiastically described as “magic grass”, is derived from two Chinese characters meaning “mushroom” and “grass”. This particular breed of grass was discovered by Chinese scientists to be an economical and environment-friendly substitute for timber traditionally used as a substrate for growing mushrooms.

The Prime Minister said the world at large and the people of the global south in particular, were grappling with multiple challenges including climate change, poverty and — most of all — food insecurity.

He congratulated China for hosting the event and Prof Lin Zhanxi for the invention of Juncao technology. He also commended China for sharing the beneficial Juncao technology with over 100 countries, which had already benefited thousands of people across the continents over the past 20 years. He mentioned that the technology also helped in addressing desertification and could be used as food for livestock, for being protein rich. The Prime Minister emphasised on sustainable ways to achieve economic recovery, growth and development as critical during the pandemic.

He said with relentless efforts towards ending poverty in all its manifestations, extreme poverty had been steadily declining in the past two decades. Khan termed China as a role model for developing countries in poverty alleviation.

“China’s remarkable growth has brought 800 million people out of poverty over the past four decades,” he said. He lauded China’s leadership role in climate change and commended President Xi Jinping’s vision of a “prosperous, clean and beautiful world” and initiative to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

Khan said poverty alleviation and tackling climate change were his government’s key priorities. He said Pakistan’s poverty reduction programme, which empowers people by providing livelihoods, creating assets and trainings, could play a vital role in collaboration with the Juncao technology.