Li Chunmeng shares her story about common prosperity through growing wild rice stems at the First Harare Forum for Africa. [Photo/Tide News]

Li Chunmeng, a 51-year-old rural woman from Lishui, Zhejiang province, shared her story about common prosperity through growing wild rice stems at the First Harare Forum for Africa — Rural Development Cooperation and China-Zimbabwe Civilizational Dialogue Academic Week, which took place in Harare, Zimbabwe, on July 8.

Li, chairperson of the Wuyangwan Fruit and Vegetable Professional Cooperative in Jinyun county, developed a new variety of wild rice stems called "Meirenjiao", capable of yielding two harvests annually.

Her innovative cultivation technologies, which received four national patents, increase output by over 50 percent on each mu (0.07 hectares) of land, causing the value to rise to 15,000 yuan ($2,065.62).

"Our wild rice stems saw a 30 percent year-on-year sales growth in the first half, reaching nearly 50 million yuan," said Li.

Under Li's guidance, over 4,500 villagers in Huzhen town now cultivate more than 16,000 mu of wild rice stems. The cooperative's sorting and processing facility handles around 15,000 kilograms daily, supplying markets in Hangzhou city, Shanghai, and even European Union countries like Spain and Italy.

Li's impact extends to Nanjiang county, Sichuan province, where she and her team provided 430,000 seedlings for free. Starting from 65.4 mu in 2018, the cultivation area has grown to nearly 10,000 mu, benefiting over 3,400 farmers.

As an important growing and trading center for wild rice stems in the country, Jinyun boasts 65,800 mu of cultivation areas, comprising 8 percent of China's total. The total value of the entire industrial chain exceeds 1.8 billion yuan.