The Symposium “Fruits and Vegetables - Research and Opportunities for Human and Planetary Health” was successfully held online yesterday, December 6th. In the next two days starting today, the Tokyo Nutrition for Growth Summit (N4G) 2021 will be held under the auspices of the Japanese Government. JIRCAS researchers will give presentations at 2 sessions of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) side event, Thematic Session 2: Toward Sustainable Solutions to Nutrition Issues through Food – Food is Local, Wisdom is Global, and the Presentation Session of Stakeholders.

For Japanese people, plant changes such as the blooming of cherry blossoms serve as barometer to feel a sense of the four seasons. But how does climate change affect the four seasons? In the 1950s, the four seasons in the Northern Hemisphere occurred in a predictable and even pattern each year. However, climate change is causing significant deviations to the length and start dates of each season. A paper published in Geophysical Research Letters states that by 2100, summers could be extremely long and winters short in the Northern Hemisphere if climate change measures were not adequately addressed, and it could have a big impact on, people's health and the environment including agriculture.

In April 2020, Ipsos MORI, a market research company in the United Kingdom released a survey on how the public in selected countries view the two major crisis, COVID-19 and climate change. Compared with other countries in the world, Japan regarded climate change as a serious crisis equivalent to COVID-19 and as a policy priority, and perceived that economic recovery by COVID-19 should not have a negative impact on the environment. In turn, Japan seems less interested in making climate change as political agendas.

Ishigaki Island, which has been attracting attention as a tourist destination in the world in recent years, is geographically closer to Taiwan than the main island of Okinawa, and belongs to a subtropical region in terms of climate. The Tropical Agriculture Research Front (TARF), a research base of JIRCAS on Ishigaki Island, is the only Japanese agricultural research institute capable of conducting empirical research in the cultivation environment of tropical crops, and has a major mission to contribute to domestic and overseas agriculture. TARF is conducting research on mangoes and passion fruits with the aim of contributing to the promotion of tropical fruit tree production in both developing countries and Japan. Since these fruits are rich in nutrients such as vitamins and have high commercial value, research that leads to the development of excellent varieties is expected to benefit both domestic and overseas consumers and producers.

The global food chain is being tested for its robustness and resilience when it comes to movement restrictions and urban blockades (lockdowns) due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). In order for the international community to overcome the global food crisis, it is necessary to closely monitor the trends in international trade. The trade value of all agricultural products has tripled in face value from 2000 to 2018, and has almost doubled on a weight basis over the same period. Japan is the world’s third-largest cereal importer, and one of the reasons for a calorie-based food self-sufficiency rate of 37% is the heavy reliance on imported maize for livestock feed. The international rice trade from Asia to the Middle East and Africa is surprisingly large and the net per capita rice consumption of importing countries is even higher than Japan. In recent years, rice consumption in Africa has been increasing year by year due to urbanization and population growth, and agricultural technologies that contribute to continuous increase in yield and planted areas are the key to improving the self-sufficiency rate.