January 12, a training course postponed due to the COVID-19 epidemic officially opened in the suburbs of Goroka Town, Eastern Highlands Province, Papua New Guinea.
Four Chinese experts from the expert group of the blascinella and dry rice technology project to carry out on-site teaching of fungal grass and dry rice cultivation technology for local growers.
Originally, more than 30 people signed up, but I didn’t expect that 70 or 80 people came to the scene. The borrowed space was not large enough, so I had to build a temporary teaching shed with bamboo and wooden poles.
Since the launch of the project in August 2019, the Chinese expert group has held 10 such training courses, each of which is very popular. Lin Yingxing, the leader of the expert group, told reporters that because the conditions of the local training facilities are relatively poor, experts sometimes give lectures under big trees.
In order to let local villagers understand and learn at a glance, the expert group refines and simplifys the technical points.
It also provides grass seeds, bacteria seeds and dry rice seeds free of charge to help villagers learn planting technology through practice.
According to the introduction, the number of local farmers involved in bacterial herb cultivation has reached 700, and more than 3,000 farmers have mastered the technology of dry rice cultivation.
For some local people who lack the means to earn a living, new technologies give them new hope for life. The economic development of Finitugu Village in Henganofi District, Eastern Highlands Province is relatively backward.
Tony, the village head, said: “With the help of Chinese experts, the village’s dry rice cultivation has grown from scratch, and large areas of wasteland have become golden rice fields, and everyone’s life is getting better and better. We are all confidently ready to learn agricultural technology and create a better future through hard work.
At present, the Eastern Highlands Province has listed fungus and dry rice as the second and third largest industries after coffee. Lin Yingxing said that he plans to work with the local government to build another seven or eight planting bases in the surrounding provinces and establish small-scale production bases to make bags there, benefiting more villagers.
Zaka Apolly, a farmer in Goroka Township, began to grow fungi grass in February last year, and the income reached 13,000 Papua New Guinea kinas (about 24,000 yuan) at the end of December of that year. She also promotes through social software, solves sales problems, and opens up the industrial chain of fungi.
Lin Yingxing said that the Chinese expert group will also fund and train a group of growers to help them learn to make mediums and bags, thus expanding the scale of production.
In this way, even after the Chinese experts leave, these farmers can continue to produce. This model has made the agricultural development of babmass more sustainable and has been affirmed and supported by the bababasb government.
In September 2020, Naru, an official of the Prime Minister’s Office and head of Komb Agricultural Co., Ltd., a central enterprise of BS, introduced the project on a video website.
Naru said that this is one of the largest agricultural cooperation projects involving PAR farmers, which will significantly improve the sustainable development capacity of agriculture and help PAR to realize its vision of self-sufficiency in rice production by 2025.
Benny Allen, a member of the PNG Congress and former Minister of Agriculture, said: “Chinese experts have worked a lot of hard to provide Tractors for PNG farmers to cultivate land, from on-site training sowing, field management, and finally harvesting.
They are helping us in the heart of their hearts.”
