ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday terming food security and improved nutrition big challenges for developing countries said China’s innovative Juncao technology could prove helpful in poverty alleviation and sustainable development. “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 forum on the 20th Anniversary of the Juncao Assistance and Sustainable Development Cooperation held in China Friday. Juncao, which is famed as ‘magic grass’, means “mushroom” and “grass”. The 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 Professor Lin Zhanxi for the invention of the Juncao technology. He also commended China for sharing the technology with over 100 countries, which had already benefited thousands of people across the continents over the last 20 years. He mentioned that the technology also helped in combating desertification and could be used as food for livestock., for being protein-rich. The prime minister emphasised sustainable ways of achieving 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 last two decades. PM Imran 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 last four decades,” he said. He lauded China’s leadership role in climate change and commended President Xi’s vision of a “prosperous, clean and beautiful world” and initiative to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
