Juncao technology was first introduced into Papua New Guinea from China in 1997. In 1998, the inventor of Juncao and dry-land rice technology, Professor Lin Zhanxi from Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, led a team to visit EHP and afterwards established the first pilot base in Lufa district of EHP.

Kopi Manove received Lin in 1998. It was at his backyard that Lin planted dry-land rice for the first time to see if it was suitable to grow in Papua New Guinea. The results were cheerful. "Later, the dry-land rice of Gold Mountain No 1 even had a record production of as high as 8.5 tons per hectare," 65-year-old Manove recalled excitedly.

Kopi's daughter Priscilla planned to grow more rice on her father's farmland and build a shed to grow mushrooms. "People in EHP do need rice as a staple food. But so far our country depends highly on imports. If we grow rice by ourselves, what a fortune we can save," she said.

According to Lin Yingxing, the Chinese government listed the Juncao technology program in EHP as an aid program in 1998. EHP became the sister province of Fujian in 2000. Since then, the Chinese side kept sending experts to Papua New Guinea to pass on the technologies.