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.

She learned that although grass is trivial and even negligible for most people, China's Juncao technology is powerful and can help farmers and communities shake off poverty.

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.

Help was on the horizon. Chinese Juncao specialists headed by Chen Kehua arrived and helped Fatima with her project by intensifying training and providing much-needed resources.

"We had our little barrel which could make up to 100 bags of mycelium, and after that, they gave us an oven. With the oven, we increased our production capacity making up to 3,000 bags in one single working session," said Fatima, who has started a community mushroom farm where about 16 people work.

"We have seen that with the community mushroom farm, you can harvest up to 300 kg of fresh mushroom after two months of production," Fatima said, adding that, that amount of mushroom can fetch 1,500,000 xaf (2,500 U.S. dollars) to 2,000,000 xaf (3,300 dollars) on the market in the country.

Fatima remembered a gloomy day when she fell sick. The sickness was dire and lasted for long but she was able to treat herself thanks to proceeds from mushroom production.

"That day we were able to sell mushroom for up to 35,000 xaf (60 dollars) and I bought my medicines (with it). I was able to treat myself. That is why we are not going to stop producing mushroom even if today the project is finished and the Chinese experts leave our village," she said.

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

"I am capable of making what is called mushroom seedlings," she said proudly.

A single mother of three, Dombeti said that her family has a much more comfortable life thanks to the money she makes from mushroom production.

"I pay for my children's education and rent a house with my parents because I live with my mom and my brothers. It is the money that changed my life compared to what I was experiencing in the past," she added.

Rural communities are now benefiting from the project too.

Pierrette Wamoundjou runs an orphanage in Gba, a village in CAR that sits in poverty, with little or no basic amenities including hospitals, schools, electricity and running water.

The village also hosts people displaced by an armed conflict in the country.

To shatter poverty has been a long-cherished wish for the people. After learning about Juncao, Wamoundjou immediately sought help from the Institute for Agricultural Research in CAR where Dombeti works.

When Dombeti paired up with Wamoundjou to help get rid of poverty in Gba, Juncao technology officially started working its magic.

A total of 60 women and men in Gba were trained in cultivating mushrooms and then built a mushroom farm.

"This (the farm) has helped to alleviate poverty and misery in Gba village," Dombeti said.

The project has been so successful that a song has been composed by the villagers to welcome the Chinese whenever they arrive: "Welcome, welcome, welcome, honored guests of China, you bring Juncao projects, fried mushrooms, mushrooms cooked in tomatoes, delicious mushrooms, thank you from the bottom of my heart ..."

"We have 150 hectares, we have 50 hectares next to the river. We can plant Juncao in large quantities. That is our concern, our objective," Wamoundjou said.

Chen, the head of Chinese Juncao specialists, recalled, "In the beginning, we first planted Juncao to distribute to farmers and mushrooms to villagers who did not have enough to eat."

After some local residents learned about it, the Juncao group began to train those who were interested in learning the technology and sent them to China for short-term training, cultivating a group of technical talents like Fatima and Dombeti.

Chen said that up to now, the project, by offering 27 training courses on Juncao technology, has trained 1,256 trainees, established 10 demonstration sites for Juncao production, guided and assisted in the establishment of five Juncao planting cooperatives and four livestock raising cooperatives and promoted cultivation of edible fungus and livestock raising demonstration households of more than 1,200 households.

"Juncao project has been successful in the Central African Republic, and we will continue to strengthen the promotion of Juncao to provide a new way to solve the local food shortage," Chen said.

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.