Information Analysis
Search Information Analysis
Pick Up
631. Responding to the Global Food Price Crisis
In Japan, many food price increases have been reported this October. Looking around the world, food and fertilizer prices are still at historically high levels due to climate shocks, armed conflicts and pandemics at the regional level, as well as the war in Ukraine, which has worsened production and distribution conditions. According to a note released by the IMF at the end of September, food and fertilizer price shocks have had the greatest impact on 48 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and West Asia, mainly due to additional import costs.
Pick Up
630. Research on Global Dietary Quality
Knowing exactly what people around the world are eating is important, but not easy. In this issue, we present a paper (Miller et al. 2022) that comprehensively quantifies and evaluates the quality of diets around the world.
Pick Up
629. Gaps in International Cooperation Could Delay Net Zero by Decades
The International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions have released the Breakthrough Agenda Report 2022, highlighting the importance of strengthening international cooperation to drive faster reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions.
Pick Up
628. One Earth: Research Priorities for Global Food Security Under Extreme Events
Today, heat waves, floods, droughts, pest outbreaks, financial crises, and military conflicts are all occurring simultaneously worldwide, threatening stable food production and supply. A paper in One Earth identified three research questions that should be prioritized over the next 20 years, including better maps and prediction of food system challenges, farm-level interventions to strengthen farmers' resilience and adaptive capacity, and food system transformation.
Pick Up
627. International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste
September 29 is the “International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste” as designated by the United Nations. Let's take action to reduce food loss for people and the planet.
Pick Up
626. Biodiversity, Climate Change and Insects Flying into Urban Buildings
Changes in behavior patterns due to extreme weather can have a variety of consequences for the survival of many organisms, including insects. There is concern that climate change will affect the survival of organisms in unexpected places around the world, leading to loss of biodiversity. Today, I would like to consider climate change and biodiversity from the perspective of issues close to home in Tsukuba, where JIRCAS is located.
Pick Up
625. Challenges of Food Systems Transitions
On September 21, heads of international organizations issued a joint statement in response to the global food security crisis for the second time since July, calling for comprehensive international coordination to support efficient production and trade, improve transparency, accelerate innovation, and invest in food systems transformation. In order to transform the food system for the health of the planet and humankind, it is first necessary to understand the current state of the food system. A paper published this month in Nature Food attempts to visualize the challenges by classifying the world's countries into food system typology.
Pick Up
624. FAO Science and Innovation Strategy
Building a world free of hunger and malnutrition requires the full use of science and innovation to overcome complex social, economic, and environmental challenges in the agri-food systems. The FAO Science and Innovation Forum will be held from October 17 to 21. JIRCAS will present examples of science and innovation targeting the Asia-Monsoon Region at a side event of the Forum on October 13.
Pick Up
623. One Year After the UN Food Systems Summit
Exactly one year ago, on September 23, 2021, the United Nations Food Systems Summit was held. One year later, in the wake of events such as concerns about rising world food prices caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, soaring fertilizer prices, and frequent extreme weather events, the need to build a sustainable and resilient food system is more important than ever.
Pick Up
622. Human Development Report 2021/2022
On September 8, the United Nations Development Programme released the 2021/2022 Human Development Report (HDR) — “Uncertain Times, Unsettled Lives: Shaping our The Shaping our Future in a Transforming World”, noting that human development indicators have fallen back for the second consecutive year to 2016 levels, and warned that progress toward achieving the SDGs by 2030 has disappeared.
Pick Up
621. The Role of Climate Change in Pakistan Floods
From mid-June to late August 2022, Pakistan experienced unprecedented flooding over a large part of the country due to monsoon rainfall well above normal. According to the World Weather Attribution , the Indus Basin is highly variable from year to year and that the complex nature of rainfall in the westernmost part of the monsoon region is difficult to simulate, but suggests that climate change may have intensified the intensity of short-term rainfall.
Pick Up
620. United in Science 2022
In conjunction with the UN General Assembly in September, UN agencies, led by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), have released United in Science 2022, a multi-organization high-level compilation of the most recent science related to climate change, impacts and responses. UN Secretary-General Guterres noted the huge gap between the ambitious goals for climate change and the current situation, warned that the world is moving in a catastrophic direction, and called for urgent action to combat climate change
Pick Up
619. Report on TICAD 8 Side Event “Managing African Soil for Food Security and Environmental Sustainability”
The TICAD 8 official side event “Managing African Soil for Food Security and Environmental Sustainability” was successfully held on August 30, 2022. A report on the event has now been uploaded to the JIRCAS website.
Pick Up
618. "Innovation and Networking of Sugarcane Research for Future Sugarcane Industry in the Asian and Pacific Region" Workshop Tomorrow and Registration Deadline Today
The workshop on the development of sugarcane research in the Asia-Pacific region is coming up tomorrow. Brazil is the world's largest producer of sugarcane, and the top five largest producers include India, Thailand, Pakistan, and China, making Asia's contribution to this crop very significant as well. Before the workshop, please watch the following video to review the cultivation and utilization of sugarcane and its potential.
Pick Up
617. Warming Above 1.5°C Could Trigger Multiple Climate Tipping Points
Climate tipping points (CTPs), which are believed to trigger irreversible changes in the Earth system, are increasingly gaining public attention both scientifically and politically. A paper summarizing the latest evidence on tipping points involving increasingly uncontrollable and irreversible changes to the Earth has been published in Science.
Pick Up
616. Elucidating the Actual State of High-Temperature Sterility in Rice Through International Monitoring Network
As global warming progresses, there is concern about the decline in productivity and quality of paddy rice due to heat-induced sterility caused by exposure of the spikelets to high temperatures during flowering. A research group including JIRCAS has established an international open-field rice monitoring network (MINCERnet) covering 11 countries around the world to accumulate and analyze data from paddy fields under various climatic conditions. The research group identified that heat-induced sterility can be uniformly evaluated by using panicle temperature at the time of flowering, rather than ambient air temperature as an indicator. This evaluation method will improve the accuracy of predicting heat-induced sterility around the world and enable appropriate countermeasures to be taken.
Pick Up
615. Special Issue of Field Crops Research on Sustainable Rice Production in Africa
To commemorate the 50th anniversary the Africa Rice Center (formerly WARDA) which is one of the CGIAR centers, Field Crops Research (Elsevier), an internationally renowned research journal has published a special issue on "Sustainable productivity enhancement of rice-based farming systems in Africa". Nineteen papers in the special issue were written by researchers at the forefront of research on rice agronomy in Africa, and JIRCAS researchers contributed to two of the papers.
Pick Up
614. Development of Sugarcane Varieties
The JIRCAS-FFTC Workshop "Innovation and Networking of Sugarcane Research for Future Sugarcane Industry in the Asian and Pacific Region" will be held on September 15, Thursday. In today's Pick Up, we will introduce sugarcane varieties that have been developed by JIRCAS together with collaborating research institutes.
Pick Up
613. JIRCAS Activities in Southeast Asia
As base for JIRCAS activities in Southeast Asia, an office was established in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1972. Currently, the liaison office is located in the Department of Agriculture, Thailand, adjacent to Kasetsart University. At the Southeast Asia Liaison Office, JIRCAS conducts research on trends in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries research in Asia, collects local information, and disseminates JIRCAS research results by participating in the Thailand Science and Technology Exhibition and holding seminars.
Pick Up
612. Challenges of Climate Change Action in the US Agricultural Context
In mid-August 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest investment promotion measure in U.S. history for greenhouse gas reduction investments, was passed. As summarized in an editorial in Science magazine on the challenges of climate action in the context of U.S. agriculture, the Act aims to promote investment in forest conservation and climate-friendly agricultural practices. While the causes of greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural sector in every country and region are different, and therefore there is no one-size-fits-all technical approach to reducing greenhouse gases, a paradigm shift toward sustainable agricultural practices is becoming an inevitable global trend, and learning from each country and region's lessons will be important.