Experts and officials from 20 countries gathered in Beijing to share their latest experiences on the development of the Seabuckthorn plant. Seabuckthorn is a valuable multi-purpose plant grown in mountainous areas, which helps to rehabilitate degraded land and alleviate the ensuing rural poverty.

Addressing the four-day second international seabuckthorn association conference, which finished yesterday, Noureddin Mona, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) representative to China, said in the past two decades, the plant has been used for water and soil conservation as well as in the development of nutritious foodstuffs and medical health products.

"This effort has facilitated poverty reduction for millions of farmers across China's backward rural areas. With research, experimentation and promotion of the plant, harmonious and coordinated development between the rural ecosystem and the economy has been achieved," he said.

With further international cooperation, he said he was confident that seabuckthorn can become a crucial solution to nutrition, health and environment issues for many countries including China, Mongolia, India and Pakistan.

According to E Jinping, vice-minister of water resources, China has embarked on a large-scale planting of seabuckthorn since 1985. It is now a key method for controlling water and soil erosion, an ecological problem threatening one-third of the country.

Following years of intensive seeding, seabuckthorn has proven effective in preventing coarse sediments from moving from the Loess Plateau, the world's worst eroded area, into the Yellow River.

Every year, more than 100,000 hectares of new seabuckthorn forest are being planted across China's ecologically fragile northwestern provinces. Currently, there are 2.3 million seeded hectares, 90 percent of the world's total.

The plant has also been turned into food and medical health products, as a way of facilitating poverty reduction for poor farmers in West China, E said.

Vice-minister E said he hoped that seabuckthorn could contribute to China's "go west" strategy by boosting farmer's incomes and rehabilitating regional ecosystems.

"Over the past two decades, the small shrub has developed into a multi-benefit plant resource, and also a new industry with scientists working in many fields," Qian Zhengying, honorary president of the conference, said in her written speech.

Seabuckthorn has been growing across Asia for thousands of years.

(China Daily August 30, 2005)