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"Indigenous crops and foods design"
Design of crop breeding and food processing of indigenous resources to create new and diversified demands

Related Research Program
Food
Country
Laos Thailand Nigeria

2025-08-04

Background

The environment surrounding the world's food systems and agriculture is changing due to climate change, globalization, and the COVID-19 pandemic etc., and the way food is produced, distributed, and consumed is undergoing a period of transformation. In order to improve nutrition in developing regions, it is important to work across various fields, and research on the quality of indigenous crops and traditional foods in the region is needed. At present, innovative developments such as IoT and next-generation sequencers are making it possible to comprehensively analyze the functionality and processing characteristics of indigenous crops and traditional foods at the molecular level.

Objectives

We will develop production technologies, breeding materials, and foods that can respond to food and nutrition issues by clarifying the functionality and processing characteristics of various indigenous crop genetic resources (rice, ginger, yam etc.) and traditional foods from Laos, Nigeria, Japan and other countries using advanced technologies.

Research Themes

 

  • Establishment of methods for utilization of indigenous crop genetic resources
  • Development of evaluation and processing technologies for new food products
  • Development and evaluation of production technologies for high value-added crops

Target Countries

Laos, Thailand, Nigeria

Target Beneficiaries

Research institutions, dissemination organizations such as JICA, universities, food and drug manufacturers etc.

Project Leader

MARUYAMA Kyonoshin (Biological Resources and Post-harvest Division)

Poster

Related Pages

JIRCAS Report

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Kaset Fair 2026, an agricultural exhibition, is being held at Kasetsart University in Thailand from January 30 to February 7, 2026. Kaset Fair, Thailand's largest agricultural and food trade fair, is hosted annually by Kasetsart University. During the event, the university campus hosts a wide variety of exhibits, from research highlights related to the agriculture and food industry to sales of agricultural and food products, attracting many visitors.

Senior Researcher ISEKI Kohtaro Receives Best Research Award at the International Symposium on Tropical Root and Tuber Crops

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2025