Global warming and expanding international trade are accelerating changes in the distribution of pests and diseases across national borders. Transboundary pests and diseases, including desert locusts, rice planthoppers, fall armyworm, and cassava mosaic disease, are causing serious damage to food production. In many regions, ecological forecasting systems and sustainable management strategies remain underdeveloped, resulting in overreliance on chemical pesticides, increased environmental burdens, and higher control costs. In East Asia, including Japan, the risk of invasion by emerging transboundary pests such as fruit flies is also increasing. These challenges highlight the need for integrated management technologies based on ecological, behavioral, and molecular mechanisms, as well as rapid diagnostic systems for newly emerging threats.

The project seeks to elucidate ecosystem interactions and molecular mechanisms associated with major transboundary pests and diseases in their outbreak and endemic regions and to develop sustainable management technologies based on this knowledge. It also establishes research platforms comprising molecular diagnostic techniques and cost estimation methods for rapid response to newly emerging transboundary pests and diseases.

• Development of ecologically based control technologies for desert locusts in Africa
• Development of sustainable management technologies for major transboundary insect pests in Southeast Asia
• Development of sustainable control technologies for difficult-to-manage diseases
• Research and response to newly emerging transboundary pests and diseases

Mauritania, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Argentina, and the Philippines

KOBORI Youichi (Crop, Livestock and Environment Division)