Lesotho Farmer Learns to Grow Mushrooms Thanks to China's Juncao Technology

The 29-year-old lives in Koalabata, a small village in the Berea district of Lesotho in southern Africa, where farmers like him rely on cultivating soybeans, maize and wheat for a living. Life had been hard as his mother was the sole bread winner who had to pay for the tuition of his college education.

Heqoa was introduced to growing mushrooms in 2014 by his peers. But he found the technology difficult to grasp and had only occasional success. A trip he made to FAFU in 2018, one of the knowledge-sharing tours organized by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, took him to the China National Engineering Research Center at Juncao Technology in Fujian province.

Inspired by the Juncao technology and with assistance from project personnel, Heqoa has established his business of growing mushrooms, bringing him revenue of about $1,500 in four months, a considerable amount in a country with a per capita GDP of $1,118 (2019). He is now expanding the business to mushroom spawn production which makes higher profit.