How-to China: Magic grass spreads prosperity and peace overseas

Q: How did you invent the Juncao technology? What's the hardest part?

Lin: The Juncao technique was developed in China as part of an experiment to help people overcome poverty.

In the 1970s, China introduced a mushroom cultivation technique that uses timber as substrate to help impoverished farmers in mountainous regions. But this method led to deforestation. To address the problem, we needed to find an alternative breeding technology.

We encountered many difficulties during the research process. The most difficult part was that we didn't have past experience to learn from.

We experimented with many types of grass to see which one could be used to grow mushrooms, how to process the grass, and how to grow mushrooms with the grass.

After three years of hard work, we succeeded in growing mushrooms with grass instead of trees. This is the Juncao technique.