JIRCAS maintains diverse genetic resources of sugarcane, indica rice, tropical fruits, and Brachiaria (tropical grass). These tropical crops play important roles as food, energy production, calorie and nutrient sources, cash crops, and fodder in the production areas particular to developing countries/areas. Amid concerns about global climate change, the sustainable and stable production of these tropical crops is an urgent issue. In addition, the introduction of tropical crops, and their cultivation and dissemination technologies is expected to be one of the measures to combat global warming in Japan and to contribute to the expansion of production areas and the diversification of food and nutrition sources. This project will also contribute to the "Development of sustainable food systems in the Asia monsoon region" and "Utilization of genetic resources to strengthen variety development capabilities" in the national strategy to achieve SDGs and sustainable food systems "Measures for achievement of Decarbonization and Resilience with Innovation (MeaDRI)" promoted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), Japan.

The Tropical Agriculture Research Front (TARF) is a research division of JIRCAS, located in Ishigaki City (Ishigaki Island), Okinawa Prefecture. The site has climatic and geographical conditions similar to those of the field of research conducted by JIRCAS overseas. The research environment is suitable for conducting detailed basic experiments, along with demonstration research in tropical crop growing environments, which can contribute to close cooperative partnerships with research institutions in developing regions and to agriculture in the southwest islands in Japan.

The “Tropical crop genetic resources” project is designed to strategically develop and promote research on tropical crops based on domestic and international issues and research needs for each crop, taking advantage of JIRCAS's diverse and abundant tropical crop genetic resources and TARF's geographical advantage. Furthermore, by sharing and providing this information and technology, we aim to strengthen collaboration that will lead to the formation of networks with domestic and overseas research institutions for the advancement of tropical crop genetic resources utilization. For this purpose, we will conduct the following research themes across crop species.

• Information and networking of genetic resources 
• Evaluation of genetic resources and development tools 
• Utilization of genetic resources for new breeding materials and cultivation technologies
• Domestic research collaboration through utilization of genetic resources

References

C4. Advancement of tropical crop genetic resources utilization through the development of database, technologies and research networking (Tropical crop genetic resources)
https://www.jircas.go.jp/en/program/proc/c4

Pick Up 7. International Collaboration on Rice Genetic Resources Research https://www.jircas.go.jp/en/program/program_d/blog/20200514_1

Pick Up 13. Tropical Fruits Research at TARF https://www.jircas.go.jp/en/program/program_d/blog/20200518

Contributor: YAMANAKA Shinsuke (Tropical Agriculture Research Front)