Professor Lin Zhanxi, the inventor of the Juncao Technology and Chief Scientist of National Engineering Research Centre of Juncao Technology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University will attend the workshop to brief this technology himself and share his extensive experience in helping thousands of local people out of poverty by applying the Juncao Technology in different countries.

The Secretariat of the United Nations presents its compliments to the Permanent Missions of the Member States to the United Nations and has the honour to extend an invitation to attend the Workshop on “Implementation of the 2030 Agenda: Enhancing capacity of developing countries to adopt sustainable agriculture through Juncao technology to alleviate poverty and promote productive employment”, which will be held on Friday, 26 May 2017 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM in Conference Room 6 at the United Nations Headquarters, New York. The Workshop is co-organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) and the Government of the People’s Republic of China, in collaboration with other relevant UN entities

The General Assembly Resolution 70/1”Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development” laid out 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 2030 Agenda outlined the complex challenges for sustainable development, in particular, the urgent need to lift millions of women and men out of extreme poverty while protecting the fragile ecosystem. The 2030 Agenda reaffirmed the integrated approach to promote all three dimensions of economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection in countries’ efforts to eliminate poverty.

The lack of sufficient arable lands to grow traditional agricultural produce, especially in mountain areas, is one reason why eliminating poverty is a challenge in some countries. Juncao technology (jun meaning fungi, cao meaning grass) allows farmers in mountain areas to grow several types of nutritious mushrooms from dried, chopped grasses, as opposed to traditional methods using sawdust and wood chips that cut down trees and damage the environment. Such an environmental-friendly technology can help small-scale farmers and farming communities to develop a low-cost, commercial-scale mushroom cultivation industry that can provide sustainable livelihood for thousands. Such technology can also be used in producing cattle food, methane gas and improve the soil to combat desertification. There may also be opportunities to export these mushrooms depending on local demands. This technology is one means to potentially lift people out of poverty. To date this technology has been successfully adopted by a number of developing countries such as South Africa, Lesotho, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. Such a technology has been proven to help developing countries promote sustainable agricultural production to achieve SDG1 and SDG2.

The subjected Workshop aims to promote transfer of agricultural technology and knowledge of good agricultural practices through partnerships and South-South cooperation. The Workshop will provide knowledge sharing and training opportunities on this technology. The draft agenda and program is also attached for your kind information.

Your presence at this important event would be most welcome and highly appreciated. All participants are kindly requested to confirm their attendance to Ms. Ang Chen, at chena@un.org, or Mr. Chaudhry Iqbal at iqbalc@un.org, Tel: 212-963-8563, no later than Wednesday, 17 May 2017.

The Secretariat of the United Nations avails itself of this opportunity to renew to all Permanent Missions of the Member States to the United Nations, the assurances of its highest consideration.