Strengthening function as an international hub for providing strategic information on agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and mobilizing new research partnerships
From April 9 to 10, 2026, the “First ASEAN Consultation Workshop and Capacity Building: Development of Regenerative and Resilient Agriculture Systems Implementation Plan and Biochar Guidelines,” an event co-hosted by the ASEAN Secretariat and the Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA), was held in Hanoi, Vietnam. The Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) participated in the workshop at the invitation of the ASEAN Secretariat.
The Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) has added Japanese and English subtitles to the archive videos of the 2025 Japan International Award for Young Agricultural Researchers (Japan Award) and the JIRCAS International Symposium 2025, and has released them on YouTube via the “JIRCAS Channel.”
July 11 marked World Population Day. As of July 2026, the global population is estimated to have reached approximately 8.3 billion, and the long-term trend of population growth continues. However, a closer look at the data reveals that the world is entering a period of profound demographic transition.
July 11 marked World Population Day. As of July 2026, the global population is estimated to have reached approximately 8.3 billion, and the long-term trend of population growth continues. However, a closer look at the data reveals that the world is entering a period of profound demographic transition.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), Europe’s climate monitoring agency, has released its latest assessment of global temperature, oceanic, polar, and hydrological conditions for June 2026. According to the report, June 2026 was the second-warmest June ever recorded globally and the warmest June on record in Western Europe. In addition, sea surface temperatures reached a new June record, highlighting the continued accumulation of heat throughout the Earth's climate system.
Plant breeding has played a vital role in improving agricultural productivity by developing high-yielding crop varieties. However, most modern breeding programs have been optimized for large-scale sole cropping systems, creating a gap between current breeding targets and the needs of sustainable, climate-resilient agriculture. In a recent Nature Food commentary, the authors propose a new framework called Smart Systems Breeding, designed to address this challenge. Rather than treating environmental variability as statistical noise to be averaged out, the framework views it as valuable information that can be used to develop and deploy crop varieties tailored to specific regions and growing conditions.
The foods we consume every day are developed through a process that relies far more on experience and trial-and-error than many people realize. Creating new food products involves numerous stages—from ingredient selection and formulation design to fermentation, manufacturing, and sensory evaluation—each requiring significant experimentation, time, and resources. At the same time, global food systems are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss, highlighting the urgent need for more sustainable approaches to food production. A recent review article published in Nature Food explores how artificial intelligence (AI) could serve as a powerful catalyst for transforming food development from an experience-driven practice into a predictive, design-oriented science.