Riyo is the Manager of Yachala Livestock Co., Ltd. in Fiji. In the past, the company's more than 3,000 acres of pasture lacked green feed during the dry season, which greatly limited the amount of cattle and sheep raised. In 2016, at the suggestion of a Chinese expert group, the ranch began to plant 7 acres of giant fungus grass on a trial basis. Three months later, Turriyang fed the cattle and sheep with giant fungus grass. "The fungus grass can also grow very tall in the dry season, and the cattle and sheep eat fat and strong." As a result, Turiyang continued to expand the scale of giant fungus grass cultivation, and the amount of cattle, sheep and livestock increased accordingly. Ranches now have the capacity to export beef cattle to countries such as Solomon. Recently, the company declared to the relevant departments the license for organic beef and mutton products raised using giant fungus grass.
Lin Zhansen, head of the Chinese technical expert group in Fiji, told reporters that as a forage, the planting of fungal grass has been promoted to the animal husbandry research station under the Ministry of Agriculture of Fiji, and the total number of livestock enterprises and breeding households has exceeded 1,000 households, and the planting area is more than 7,000 mu, so the mortality rate of cattle and sheep in the dry season has been reduced.
In addition, the Chinese expert team also overcame the technical problems of high temperature in Fiji, which was not conducive to the growth of mushrooms and affected the quality of mushrooms, ending the history of Fiji's inability to produce edible and medicinal mushrooms. Fiji now has more than 600 farmers involved in mushroom cultivation, built two demonstration villages, established the "Fiji Mushroom Growing Association", and emerged a group of small and micro fungus grass business owners.
Fiji Minister of Agriculture Mahendra Reddy said that through technological innovation, the Chinese expert group has achieved multi-purpose and multi-purpose grass: providing sufficient raw materials for the cultivation of Fiji mushrooms, effectively alleviating the shortage of green feed in the dry season of pastures, promoting the development of animal husbandry, preventing and controlling local soil erosion, especially for secondary disasters caused by hurricanes. During the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, thanks to the help of fungus and grass, the animal husbandry industry has been able to maintain its development and ensure the supply of meat products.
At present, the China-aided Fiji Fungal Grass Technology Demonstration Center has become the core demonstration base of the emerging fungal grass industry in the South Pacific Island countries. Chinese fungus has won international invention awards in Geneva and Paris. In 2017, the "China-UNITED Nations Peace and Development Fund Fungus Technology Project" was launched at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, USA, and the fungal grass technology became an effective measure to implement the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
A strain of fungus and grass, rooted in the roots of friendship, bearing the fruit of win-win results.