High-level Meeting on Juncao Technology

 

 

 

 High-level Meeting on Juncao Technology

Carla Mucavi,  Director, FAO Liaison Office with the United Nations in New York

 

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am honored to be here today, and I thank the Permanent Mission of China and DESA for organizing this event and their kind invitation for FAO to participate.

We have already heard many inspiring statements and a comprehensive presentation by Professor Zhanxi. A lot has already been said. I will try not to repeat what have been said before me and, instead, would like to focus on how FAO sees Juncao technology in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

We have 11 years to reach the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Unfortunately, we know already that we are lagging behind on achieving some of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including on the Zero Hunger goal of SDG 2.

In the last few years, we have seen an increase in chronic undernourishment that reached 821 million people in 2017, reversing years of progress fighting hunger. On the other end of the malnutrition spectrum, 672 million adults are obese in the world. Obesity is affecting developed and developing countries alike.  

If we look at how we produce and consume food, a third of all food is lost or wasted and the intensive use of chemical inputs and natural resources are contributing to environmental degradation and biodiversity loss. At the same time, agriculture affects and is affected by climate change.

The co-existence of hunger, obesity, degradation of natural resources, and agriculture’s contribution to climate change, are symptoms of a broken system that we need to fix. This means transforming food and agriculture systems to simultaneously nourish people, nurture the planet and build resilient livelihoods.

At the same time, nine out of ten of the world's 570 million farms are managed by families, making family farming the predominant form of agriculture. Family farmers are important stewards of our natural resources and critical agents of change for sustainable development, and yet they are being left behind.

Empowering and supporting family farmers and rural people, especially rural women and youth, is critical to fulfil the promise of leaving no one behind and will allow them to fulfill their potential and bring us closer to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

There are different ways to fight hunger and malnutrition, to transform our food systems and empower rural people and family farmers as agents of change. There is no silver bullet, but we have seen many successful experiencesthat can be scaled-up and shared, that inspire and can act as catalysts for the 2030 Agenda as a whole.

We do not have time today to go over them in depth, but considering the focus of our meeting, I would like to single out the contributions that China can give.

The Millennium Development Goals seem like a distant affair, but I want to recall that China was one of around 30 countries that not only reduced the prevalence of undernourishment by half but also halved the number of hungry people. China also accounted for almost two-thirds of the total reduction in the number of undernourished people in the developing regions between 1990 and 2015. There is, therefore, a clear value to learn from this experience and adapt it to other contexts.

Juncao technology is a part of the Chinese experience and an approach that, as part of broader rural development initiatives, can trigger actions that help address malnutrition and sustainability challenges and that respond to the needs of rural people.

Juncao technology is a simple, accessible technology that can amplify the benefits of mushrooms, further reducing production cycles and minimizing the use of natural resources and providing a quick source of nutrition for families. It can also boost livelihoods, especially for traditionally disadvantaged demographics including women, youth and indigenous populations and provide an additional source of income for family farmers.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

FAO has been following the China-DESA UN Peace and Development Trust Fund project that is sharing Juncao Technology with different countries.

In Rwanda, the National Early Childhood Development Programme that, with FAO support, is promoting improved food gardens in all the 30 districts of the country, includes a training package on mushroom production using Juncao technology.

In Fiji, many farmers have started growing mushrooms using the transferred Juncao technology, targeting the tourism industry. At the last FAO Regional Conference for Asia and the Pacific, hosted by the Government of Fiji in 2018, an exhibition on Juncao technology called the attention of participants.

 FAO is keen to explore possibilities that Juncao technology offers for sustainable agriculture development, including in the context of the FAO-China strategic partnership. China was one of the first and continues to be one of the main South-South Cooperation partners of FAO. Since 2006, China has committed 80 million US dollars to South-South Cooperation in food and agriculture through FAO.

This partnership is enshrined in a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2016, that creates synergies and promotes complementarities between FAO’s Strategic Programmes and China’s “Belt and Road Initiative”, focusing on shared development objectives such as eradicating poverty, hunger and promoting the sustainable use of natural resources.

Taking this collaboration one step further, FAO and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in China signed last October a letter of intent for the formal establishment of a Centre of Excellence for Cooperation for Agriculture Innovation and Rural Development. Juncao technology could be considered as one of the areas to explore in this framework.

I look forward to further exchanging ideas with all of you and identifying opportunities to upscale this promising innovation. 

Thank you for your attention.