STORY: China's Juncao technology improves livelihood of women in Central African Republic
SHOOTING TIME: Feb 5, 2024
DATELINE: March 8, 2024
LENGTH: 00:02:13
LOCATION: Bangui
CATEGORY: AGRICULTURE

SHOTLIST:
1. various of Fatime harvesting mushrooms
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (French): FATIME ABBA REKYA, Mushroom farm owner
3. various of the Institute for Agricultural Research in CAR
4. various of Irene Dombeti working
5. SOUNDBITE 2 (French): IRENE DOMBETI, Laboratory technician of the Institute for Agricultural Research in CAR

STORYLINE:

In the Central African Republic (CAR), Fatima Kira Aba is a boss lady.

About six years ago, she was an ordinary woman struggling to survive in the war-torn Central African country before traveling to China to study Juncao, a Chinese-invented technology using grass to grow mushrooms.

Developed by the National Engineering Research Centre of the Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University (FAFU) of China, Juncao technology has allowed smallholder farmers to grow mushrooms from dried, chopped grasses, without chopping down trees and damaging the environment.

Keen to implement what she had learned in China, Fatima started a small unit of mushroom production shortly after she returned to CAR but made little progress at first.

SOUNDBITE 1 (French): FATIME ABBA REKYA, Mushroom farm owner
"In 2018, I was trained in China on mushroom production technology, on Juncao technology. In 2020, when the project resumed in CAR, the Chinese experts who had arrived came to us. They saw what we had done and now they've come to support us."

Chinese Juncao specialists helped Fatima with her project by intensifying training and providing much-needed resources.

Fatima is not the only one who has been benefited from the technology.

Irene Dombeti, one of those who traveled to China with Fatima to study edible and medicinal mushroom technology, has become an expert and now works as a laboratory technician of the Institute for Agricultural Research in CAR.

SOUNDBITE 2 (French): IRENE DOMBETI, Laboratory technician of the Institute for Agricultural Research in CAR
"I'm one of the participants in China for the second promotion project of Juncao technology in CAR. I'm very, very proud of this project because I've learned a lot about mushroom production. Thanks to this training, today I'm a technician on the project."

As women around the world celebrate International Women's Day on March 8, Dombeti voiced confidence that Juncao technology will veritably empower women if it runs unperturbed.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Bangui.
(XHTV)