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346. Pre-Summit of the UN Food Systems Summit: Signs of Hope in COVID Crisis

This September, the UN Food System Summit will be held in New York in parallel with the UN General Assembly to discuss the global food system. Prior to this, the Pre-Summit was held in Rome, Italy from July 26-28, described as a "People's summit" and brought together many people, including government officials, farmers, producers, indigenous people, youth, women, civil society and the private sector.
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345. Counting Carbon― Measuring Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Absorption

Recently, carbon neutrality, which means achieving zero emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by subtracting the amount absorbed by forests, has become a hot topic. By using both bottom-up and top-down approaches, combining observations with model estimates, and improving the sophistication of greenhouse gas emission source estimates, it is possible to distinguish carbon emissions from agriculture and fossil fuels from natural processes. According to the European Space Agency, at the current rate of emissions, we have only 10 years left to keep global warming below 1.5°C.

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344. Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Nutrition: An Additional 141 Million People in Low- and Middle-Income Countries Without Access to Healthy Food

From July 26 until today, the 28th, a pre-summit of the United Nations Food System Summit is being held in Italy, where global issues related to food and nutrition are being discussed. The Standing Together for Nutrition Consortium (ST4N) is multidisciplinary consortium of experts in nutrition, economics, and food and health systems. Here, we summarize two ST4N papers published in Nature Food on the impact of COVID-19 on nutrition in low- and middle-income countries. 

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343. Breeding Rice for Adaptation to Water Saving Technologies

Rice is a major food source for almost half of the world's population and is one of the most important food crops. On the other hand, methane emissions from rice paddies are one of the major sources of greenhouse gases. At the same time as breeding rice that is resilient to climate change, it is also necessary to breed rice in line with the development of cultivation techniques that reduce methane emissions from paddy fields. A review article, “Breeding rice for climate change by improving adaptation to water-saving technologies”, coordinated by JIRCAS Senior Researcher Dr. Matthias Wissuwa, has been published online in Theoretical and Applied Genetics.

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342. Overview of JIRCAS Research Programs

JIRCAS has been conducting research activities under a new research program and project structure in the 5th Medium to Long-term Plan (5 years until 2025), which started on April 1, 2021. We have recently opened a website to introduce our research programs and projects. Please take a look.

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341. Report on the Launch Event of the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook

Just one week ago, on July 14, 2021 (Wednesday), the “Launch Event of the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook”, organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Liaison Office in Japan in cooperation with JIRCAS, was held online. At this event, the experts involved in writing the Agricultural Outlook 2021-2030 report released on July 5 gave lectures on its contents and exchanged opinions with Japanese experts.

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340. Overview of the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021

The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021 (SOFI 2021) report, released this month in New York, estimates that the number of people facing hunger will increase further to a maximum of 811 million. SOFI is an annual flagship report of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) jointly prepared by five UN agencies (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO). Tomorrow, July 21, the FAO Liaison Office in Japan and other international organizations involved in SOFI will hold an online SOFI launch event targeting Japanese audience. We hope you will join us.

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339. Extreme Weather Events in the Northern Hemisphere in June and July 2021

Extreme weather events have been observed in various regions of the Northern Hemisphere during June and July 2021. The northwestern United States and western Canada have been hit by a heat wave since the end of June, with record high temperatures of over 40°C. Meanwhile, in Europe, floods caused by torrential rains, said to occur once in 100 years, have caused human and material damage since the beginning of July. While the direct cause of the extreme weather is still awaiting analysis, experts are pointing to the impact of climate change. The year 2021 will see many international initiatives such as the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the UN Food Systems Summit. It is expected that 2021 will make the difference between success and failure in terms of countries' commitment to avoid the worst impacts of frequent extreme weather events.

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338. Global Food System

The global food system has been severely affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic since last year. Before hosting the UN Food Systems Summit this September, the UN will discuss sustainable food systems at a pre-summit to be held in Rome, Italy for three days starting July 26. We have been discussing the topic of global food system in Pick Up, but we would like to organize it once again before the pre-summit.
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337. Environment-Friendly Dream Technology Also Increases Rice Yield

In recent years, there has been a lot of talk about reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG). In the agricultural sector, cow burps are actually the largest source of GHG, but rice paddies are also a major source of GHG. This is due to the fact that watering rice paddies reduces oxygen in the soil, which causes microorganisms in the soil to produce methane gas. JIRCAS, in collaboration with Chiba University and Can Tho University in Vietnam, has tried an intermittent irrigation technology to reduce GHG emissions in rice paddies in the Mekong Delta, and found that it can reduce the amount of water used for irrigation and GHG emissions, and also increases the yield of paddy rice.

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336. The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021: Around 118 million more people faced hunger last year

On July 12, the 2021 edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) was published. According to the report, the number of people in the world faced hunger increased by 118 million in the year 2019-2020. The opportunity to learn more about these latest global issues is very important. As part of this effort, a webinar, "OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook Report Launch Event," will be held today, Wednesday, July 14, from 15:00 to 16:30 Japan time, hosted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Liaison Office in Japan, in cooperation with JIRCAS.

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335. Using Organic Materials to Overcome Low Productivity of Rice Cultivation in Madagascar

More than 10 soil nutrients, including nitrogen and phosphorus, are required for crop growth, and it is necessary to keep replenishing the nutrients used at each harvest. The small-scale agricultural sector in developing countries cannot afford to replenish phosphorus as a chemical fertilizer, resulting in thin soils and chronically low production. By working on the development of fertilizer management technology to effectively utilize organic materials that farmers can use as an alternative to chemical fertilizers, JIRCAS aims to contribute to the stable production of rice in oligotrophic soils in Africa, including Madagascar.

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334. Reconsidering Rural Development

In May 2021, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) released the World Social Report 2021. This year's theme is "Reconsidering Rural Development". It is estimated that four out of five people facing extreme poverty in the world live in rural areas. The report outlines a direction for rural development that takes into account global environmental protection, technological innovation, and country-specific conditions to ensure that no one is left behind. JIRCAS has been conducting research projects in rural areas, aiming at environmental conservation and improvement of agricultural productivity and living standards in cooperation with local people.
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333. July 11 is World Population Day

The world's population exceeded 5 billion on July 11, 1987, and the United Nations General Assembly declared it an international day in 1990. 7.875 billion people will be living in the world in 2021, 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050, and 10.9 billion in 2100. A video showing the transition in population of the top 15 countries is available in the main text.
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332. The Role of Science, Technology and Innovation in Transforming the Food System

The UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) is scheduled for September 2021. The success of building a food system that is efficient, leaves no one behind, resilient to shocks and sustainable, depends on the ability to leverage science, technology and innovation while taking into account the diversity of the food system. A two-day "Science Day" organized by the Science Group will be held today, July 8, to discuss the role of science, technology and innovation in food system transformation.
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331. Rice Cultivation Technology to Overcome Soils with Poor Nutrient Supply

The recent debate on climate change measures has raised the issue of the contribution of ineffective use of chemical fertilizers in food production to greenhouse gas emissions. On the other hand, the suboptimal or limited use of chemical fertilizer is a cause of low productivity for smallholder farmers in developing regions such as Africa. In developing countries, there is a need for the development of technologies that can achieve high yields with minimal amounts of chemical fertilizer inputs so as to address both production increases and environmental friendliness through the development of crop varieties and fertilizer application methods that are suited to the local soil conditions.
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330. Sustainable Development Report 2021: SDG Progress Reversed for the First Time

In June, the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) published its Sustainable Development Report 2021 (SDR 2021). In the wake of the new coronas, for the first time since the agreement of the SDGs in 2015, progress towards achieving the SDGs has reversed globally. The report explains the need for a strong multilateral system to confront not only pandemics, but also other global challenges such as climate change and the biodiversity crisis.
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329. Launching Event of the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2021-2030

The FAO Liaison Office in Japan, the UN agency specializing in food and agriculture, will host an online event on July 14 (Wed) to celebrate the publication of the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2021-2030. The authors will give a live presentation on the future outlook based on the analysis of trends in global agricultural markets and discuss strategic policy, science and technology areas necessary to maintain global food security. The link for registration is now open. Please feel free to join us!

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328. Small Fish (Zako) with Big Potential

Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, recipient of the 2021 World Food Prize and one of the world's leading experts on fish farming in developing countries, has made a significant contribution to increasing food production, micronutrient intake, and livelihoods of the people of rural Bangladesh by introducing local indigenous small fish farming into the commercial fish farming system and encouraging related food system transformation. In fact, in developing countries and regions of the world, there are strong concerns about health problems caused by inadequate intake of animal protein and micronutrients. In the research project “Ecosystem approach to aquaculture” under the Food Program, JIRCAS is working on the development of technologies for enhancing the stocks of small indigenous fish and their utilization to improve the nutritional deficit in rural areas in tropical regions.
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327. The 9th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM9) and JIRCAS new project “Yama-Sato-Umi agroecosystem connectivity”

The 9th Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting (PALM9) will be held online on July 2, 2021. The PALM is an international conference that has been organized by the Government of Japan every three years since 1997 and is attended by 14 Pacific island countries (PICs), two French territories, Australia and New Zealand. Pacific island countries have common difficulties regarding their small size and land distribution over a wide area, distance from major international markets, and the vulnerability to natural disasters and climate change. To overcome these challenges, PALM is an important opportunity to discuss and enhance partnership at the summit level for regional stability and prosperity.