Fujian helps PNG innovate with grass

PORT MORESBY - At the Goroka Juncao& Dry-land Rice Technology Demonstration Base in Papua New Guinea's Eastern Highlands province, a unique type of grass called "Juncao" stands tall, almost 5 meters high, in the vast fields.

With the help of agricultural specialists from East China's Fujian province, locals are trying to grow rice and mushrooms out of the special wild grass, similar to some fungi grown from tree matter. The grass Juncao, also called "China Grass" by natives, can also be used to feed livestock.

When media reporters arrived at the base one morning in January, villagers were eagerly awaiting. Lin Yingxing, director of the base and a Chinese expert in Juncao and dryland rice technologies, who came to the airport of Goroka to fetch the reporters, got off the jeep promptly.