On March 26, 2026, Senior Researcher KASHIWA Takeshi of the Biological Resources and Utilization Division received the Young Scientist Award at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the Phytopathological Society of Japan, which was held from March 26 to 28 at Setsunan University’s Hirakata Campus in Hirakata, Osaka Prefecture.
From February 6 to 15, 2026, the KMITL Agricultural Fair 2026 was held at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang (KMITL) in Bangkok, Thailand. This fair is a comprehensive annual exhibition in the fields of agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and food organized by the university, and it is the largest event of its kind in eastern Bangkok. The venue featured a wide variety of programs, including the sale of local agricultural products and processed foods, research presentations by students and researchers, and hands-on activities, attracting many visitors throughout the event.
On April 3, 2026, we welcomed Dr. Virender Kumar (Research Director), Dr. SAITO Kazuki (Senior Scientist), and Dr. IWANAGA Masa (Board Member) from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) for a courtesy visit and technical exchange. During the visit, we introduced our institutional framework and research projects, followed by broad discussions on strengthening future collaboration with IRRI.
Iron is an essential element for plants, but in many parts of Southeast Asia and Africa, there is an excess supply of iron, which has a negative impact on the growth of plants, especially rice. This article introduces research aimed at elucidating the mechanism behind this "iron toxicity" and discovering rice genes that are important for healthy rice growth even under such conditions.
While Africa is considered one of the world's most promising growth markets, it is also the region with the largest number of people suffering from hunger. One of the causes of hunger is soil degradation. This article introduces research aimed at effectively disseminating the "Fallow Band System" to farmers, which helps protect African soil, stabilize food production, increase farmers' incomes, and reduce hunger and poverty.
The word "knowledge" is associated with what we learn in school classes, but apart from such knowledge, farmers' experiential knowledge, which they acquire through their daily experiences, is called "farmer knowledge." To date, many technologies that are supposed to make sustainable agriculture possible have been disseminated in Africa, but there is a problem that farmers do not use them or stop using them soon after they are used. One possible solution to this problem is to understand "farmer knowledge. If we researchers can understand what farmers value and what they consider difficult in their daily farm work, and how they understand the characteristics of the soil and crops, we believe it will be possible to develop technologies that meet farmers' wishes and disseminate technologies in a way that is easily accepted by farmers.