Yam, a staple food and cash crop produced in West Africa, has been in increasing demand in recent years, and there is a need to improve its productivity. Recent studies have revealed that yams, like legume crops, symbiotically harbor nitrogen-fixing bacteria, which promote plant growth and tuber production. The results of these studies are expected to contribute to the development of yam varieties that can be cultivated in low-fertility soils, and fertilization technology that uses the power of microorganisms to reduce the cost of applying expensive chemical fertilizers.

On May 18, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) released the State of the Global Climate 2021, announcing that all four key indicators of climate change - greenhouse gas concentrations, sea level rise, ocean heat, and ocean acidification - reached new records in 2021. On the same day, UN Secretary-General Guterres also addressed the already critical global food crisis in climate change and COVID-19, sounding the alarm over the rapid deterioration of food security due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and calling for urgent international collaboration to address the food crisis. May 22 is the International Day for Biological Diversity. In a globalized world, the issues of climate change, food crisis and biological diversity are closely interrelated and must be resolved through international collaboration.

Climate change is a major threat to global food security, with the potential to affect the current food system not only by reducing crop production, but also by reducing the genetic diversity of its wild relatives, limiting options for future variety breeding and reducing the ability to adapt to more severe challenges in the future. In addition, the projected temperature rise in the future will increase the likelihood of extreme weather events, including heat waves, and heat stress will become a major contributor to abiotic stress in many crops. Heat stress can have adverse effects on plant morphology and physiology during all stages of vegetative and reproductive development. Especially in fruiting vegetables such as tomatoes, even moderate heat stress can dramatically reduce fruit set and yield, resulting in poor fruit quality. We are pleased to present a review article describing the genetic and molecular mechanisms for conferring heat stress tolerance in tomatoes.

The JIRCAS Online Open House 2022 was held last month and the mini-lectures by research staff are archived on our YouTube channel. Today, we would like to introduce the mini-lecture entitled “Water connects you and Africa ~ SDGs and Agricultural Water Use”.

Last month, JIRCAS held an online open house. The mini-lectures by JIRCAS research staff are archived on our YouTube channel. Today, we would like to introduce "Various Types of Rice: Rich Rice Culture in Asia".

Asian soybean rust is a serious problem in soybean production in tropical and subtropical regions. This disease is also a problem in Bangladesh along with the expansion of domestic production. In this study, we investigated the virulence of the Asian soybean rust against known resistance genes in order to control this disease through the introduction of resistant varieties. The results showed that while the virulence of the pathogenic samples in 2016 was weak and many of the known resistance genes were effective, the virulence of 2018 and 2019 samples changed strongly. They included a strongly virulent rust samples for which seven known resistance genes were completely ineffective. While the introduction of resistant varieties is effective from a cost and environmental impact perspective, the development of resistant varieties using gene-pyramiding to deal with highly virulent rusts is needed to achieve a stable effect of control. 

The 2022 Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC 2022), released on May 4, reports that almost 193 million people in 53 countries and territories faced an immediate food security crisis in 2021, an increase of nearly 40 million people from the previous year, and expresses concern that the food security crisis has risen over the past six years.

The Russia-Ukraine crisis has come at the worst possible time for the world as it grapples with its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Soaring food, energy, and fertilizer prices have increased the risk of further global instability, and on April 13, the United Nations released a report by the Global Crisis Response Group, which expressed concern that 17 million people worldwide will be significantly affected by any one of a number of risks that could spill over into the food, energy, and financial systems from the war in Ukraine. The report expressed concern that 17 million people worldwide would be severely affected by any one of a number of risks that could spill over into the food, energy, and financial systems of Ukraine.

Many of the products around us such as cosmetics and supplements that we unconsciously use on a daily basis are made from wild plant species. In recent years, the global demand for raw materials from wild species has been increasing, but they are in danger of extinction due to loss of survival zones, climate change, and over-exploitation. A recent report published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) hopes to raise awareness among all those involved in the wild species trade, leading to conservation through responsible consumption and production.