Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University Professor and Chief Scientist Lin Zhanxi presents the flourishing roots of a Juncao plant in Fuzhou, Fujian Province’s capital. Having developed Juncao hybrid grass in the 1980s, he is often referred to as “Papa Juncao.” (Xinhua/Wei Peiquan)

One of China’s most significant contributions to international sustainable development, Juncao refers to a robust group of hybrid grasses that can withstand drought and have a number of advantageous applications. The grasses can be used as raw material inputs when producing edible and medicinal fungi, functional food, livestock feed, fertiliser, biomass energy, and other biological materials and can also control soil erosion and desertification, improve saline-alkali soil, regulate and alter microclimates, provide protection against some of the negative effects caused by wind, including by fixing sand and loose earth, rehabilitate obsolete mines, help conserve water and purify air, absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, and be applied to other ecological management undertakings.

A few Juncao species have been used as pioneer plants in China’s arid and semi-arid regions, including in some of these types of swaths of the Yellow River basin and the arid, high-altitude Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. A large variety consisting of a clump of around 10 to 20 tillers that can be harvested three to six times a year for many years known as giant Juncao can grow to a height of about five to six m and fix a 15 sq.-m swath of sand and loose earth with its root system within 100 days.

China began introducing Juncao species in other countries around the globe and providing them with corresponding training and conducting related demonstration activities in 1992 and has done so in more than 100 in the interval since, and the United Nations Development Programme listed the cooperation that has been occurring between China and other developing countries in this area as a prioritised undertaking in 1994. The techniques that have been passed along and the capacity building that the Juncao projects have facilitated have helped lay foundations for sustainable and inclusive development by boosting food security and the transition to a green economy via environmentally friendly approaches, more-regenerative agriculture, and the creation of green jobs.

A China-assisted Juncao project was launched in the small mountainous southern African country of Lesotho – a nation in which animal husbandry contributes a significant percentage of GDP and an even greater percentage of its citizens participate in the sector – in October 2006, which led to 16 Juncao training and demonstration sites being built as of the conclusion of 2021 and countless households benefiting.

A report released by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2018 indicated that nearly 75% of Lesotho’s population lives in rural areas and engages in farming despite the fact that just 18.9% of the country’s land is strictly agricultural. The nation’s vast rangelands were mostly used to sustain its expanding livestock population in the past, which led to severe land degradation – one of the main contributors to a decline in food security that has been occurring in its borders. Inappropriate farming practices and overgrazing caused excessive soil erosion, and erratic rainfall often exacerbated the situation. Lesotho’s animal husbandry industry had reached a point in which it was in need of an overhaul; corresponding soil and water loss problems were in urgent need of being addressed and reduced and participants needed to increase their incomes among other problems that required attention.

The China-assisted Juncao project promoted the development of the country’s animal husbandry industry, however, and alleviated the soil and water loss that overgrazing caused, reducing the problems by over 97% and more than 80%, respectively, compared to the outcomes that corn fields facilitated.

A team led by Samuel Motlomelo, a professor working at the National University of Lesotho – the oldest and foremost university in the nation – manages a Juncao cultivation and application training site in the community of Masianokeng, which is located 12 km south of Maseru, Lesotho’s capital. Techniques and approaches related to the production of livestock forage using giant Juncao rather than traditional dry grasses, environmental protection and conservation, land fixation, and livestock farming are taught and demonstrated at the 0.7-ha location, 0.5 ha of which consists of a giant Juncao plantation that also helps prevent soil and water loss on the sloped land that it is situated on. The Chinese experts that have been involved taught Motlomelo’s team how to grow giant Juncao, gave them funding for a barn that the livestock that are raised at the site – five head of pregnant adult cattle and two calves as of 2021 – use when cold winds strike in the winter, and have provided guidance related to the utilisation of the manure that is generated as fertiliser for the grass and other circular farming techniques.

In 2021, Motlomelo noted that a cow requires 4 kg of fresh grass, 4 kg of dry grass, and 4 kg of corn flour per day and that this costs about ZAR25 (US$1.34) in total. With the ability to be served both fresh and as hay after it is dried and possessing crude protein content of about 10% and rich in various nutrients, the tender giant Juncao can partially replace corn flour and thus greatly reduce input costs. The skin of the cows that are raised at the Masianokeng training site has become smoother, the animals’ weights have increased, and their milk production has risen from 22 litre per day to a total of around 26 litre per day, resulting in about ZAR24 (US$1.29) of additional income per cow when milk is sold at the rate of ZAR6 (US$0.32) per litre as well.

The professor is confident that Juncao can spread to more of Lesotho’s irrigated areas, where it can be harvested, dried, baled, stored, and used as fodder for livestock in the winter. Very pleased with the grass’s versatility and the expert team he has worked with, Motlomelo has also been learning how to use the grass as a substrate for fungi and passing what he learns on to local farmers so they can produce fresh mushrooms for their own use and for sale as an additional income stream.

For more information, please contact WFP China COE (wfpcn.coe@wfp.org)