On July 24, Sasakawa Africa Association in collaboration with IFPRI/ AFAAS will host a webinar, titled ‘Scaling Agricultural Extension in Africa amid Emerging Technologies and Global Aid Shifts’. Dr. Koide of JIRCAS will participate in the panel session of the event. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) announced the world food price trend on July 4, with the average for June 2025 being 128.0 points, up 0.5% from May. The price indices for cereals and sugar fell, but this was outweighed by the increase in the price indices for dairy products, meat, and vegetable oils. Overall, the price index rose 5.8% from June 2024, but remained 20.1% lower than the peak recorded in March 2022.

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the Pacific high-pressure system extended strongly toward Japan in June this year, making it the highest since statistics began in 1898. In Western and Southwestern Europe, both the minimum temperature (nighttime) and maximum temperature (afternoon) broke the monthly observation records for June in some areas.

Food production in Africa has increased over the past two decades. Strangely, however, so has the number of food-insecure people. This problem is exacerbated by poor transportation networks, low surplus production in many countries, and high transportation costs. A World Bank report sheds light on the connections between transportation, logistics, and food security in Africa, and suggests ways to increase the resilience of food systems.

June 29th is the International Day of the Tropics established by the United Nations. On this occasion, I thought about the role of JIRCAS's sole substation, the Tropical Agriculture Research Front (TARF, commonly known as Nekken). 

Droughts are becoming more frequent and severe around the world. According to a new analysis by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the amount of land area affected by drought doubled between 1900 and 2020, with droughts becoming more severe on 40% of land areas in recent decades.

Higher-than-average temperatures can lead to reduced average crop yields as well as increased crop yield variability by exacerbating hot and dry conditions if production systems are unable to mitigate the effects of these stresses. The Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) has published an article on the importance of monitoring the impact of climate risks on crop yield variability.

To respond to climate change and achieve sustainable food production, we need to strengthen resilience to adverse environments. Researchers have been working on crop stress tolerance to evaluate resilience under single stress conditions and to improve its genetics. However, in actual farmland, growth and yield are often limited when crops are grown under multi-stress conditions, a combination of stresses rather than a single stress. Although there is a strong need for research on multi-stress tolerance, it is very challenging for researchers because of the complexity of experimental systems, and it is desirable to solve technical problems such as improving phenotyping techniques and estimating plasticity.

June 17th is World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought 2025, and this year we will highlight the potential of land restoration. However, land restoration requires scientific knowledge of the local climate, environment, and soil conditions, and there are many difficult challenges to address. As an example, we will introduce the issue of salt-damaged farmland in the world's drylands.