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524. International Mother Earth Day
Today, April 22, is International Mother Earth Day. This year's theme is “Invest in Our Planet”. Actions are needed to promote the transition to a sustainable economy that is friendly to both humanity and the planet.
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523. JIRCAS Open House 2022: Live Streaming of Panel Discussion on April 24 at 1:00-2:00 PM JST
The JIRCAS Open House 2022 is now online. A panel discussion focusing on food and agriculture in Africa will be held via live-streaming on April 24 (Sun), the last day of the Open House, from 1:00 PM JST. Please watch and join us.
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522. Stamp Rally Quiz Challenge on International Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
The JIRCAS Open House 2022 is now accessible online until April 24 (Sun) at a special site on the official website. Today, we will introduce 2 activities, the "Stamp Rally Quiz” on international agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, and "360˚ Camera Video" from a researcher/animal's point of view.
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521. Gaps in Global Food Systems Research
On April 12, Nature published an editorial discussing how the war in Ukraine is exposing a gap in food systems research and the need for action by researchers to stem the cycle of another food crisis. The invasion, war, pandemic and financial crisis are all putting unprecedented stress on the global food system.
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520. Three Major Farming Methods for Shrimp Imported to Japan
The Japanese people love shrimp, and in 2019 they consumed more than 230,000 tons of shrimp annually, making them the second largest consumer per capita in the world, after the United States. According to government statistics, about 70% of the shrimp imported to Japan comes from Southeast and South Asian regions such as Vietnam and India. Shrimp caught in these countries were exported until the 1980s, but since the 1990s, production has shifted mainly to aquaculture due to dwindling resources. In addition, 2022 is the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture. In this Pick Up, we will introduce some of the less commonly known methods of shrimp farming.
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519. JIRCAS Online Open House 2022
The JIRCAS Open House 2022 will be held from April 18 (Mon) to 24 (Sun). The open house will be held online and a special site has been set up on the JIRCAS website. We look forward to your participation.
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518. Biodiversity Footprint of International Trade
A paper recently published in Scientific Reports stated that while human activities are the largest contributor to biodiversity loss through direct loss of habitat and indirectly through climate change, the events that contribute to species extinctions often result from consumption and services in areas far-removed from the affected species. The study showed that international trade is responsible for 29.5% of the global species extinction footprint.
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517. The Challenge of Improving Agricultural Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa
Our World in Data, an online site that attempts to visualize various world events through statistical dashboards, introduced the issue of agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as one of the biggest challenges of this century. In order to achieve both productivity gains and environmental impact reductions, it is necessary to confront the challenges of small-scale farming systems in Africa on a site-by-site basis, experimenting with various innovations.
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516. Towards Making Foods Healthy, Sustainable and Accessible
At the UN Food System Summit last September, the shift to food that contributes to the health of the planet and humankind became the biggest agenda, and a diverse range of stakeholders, not only international organizations and governments, but also civil society and the private sector, expressed their commitment to change. Among them, the Rockefeller Foundation, an influential force in international agricultural research, announced the launching of the Good Food Strategy, which aims for a world where quality food is physically and economically accessible to all people.
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515. World Food Price Trends－FAO Food Price Index Hits Record High
On April 8, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) released the World Food Price Index, reporting that food price indexes hit an all-time high in March 2022 due to unstable international social conditions. This surge reflects, among other things, the highest price indexes for vegetable oils, cereals, and meat.
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514. Dr. Guntur V. Subbarao, JIRCAS Senior Researcher, Speaks at TED2022
Dr. Guntur V. Subbarao, JIRCAS Senior Researcher, will speak at the TED2022: A New ERA to be held from April 10-14, 2022 in Vancouver, Canada. Dr. Subbarao’s research on BNI-enhanced wheat has garnered worldwide attention and won the Cozzarelli Prize for 2021 from PNAS and the National Academy of Sciences.
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513. African Union Year of Nutrition 2022 Towards Nourishing Africa
In this article, we present a summary of a letter to the editor of Nature Food from Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank.
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512. IPCC - The Need for Systemic Change to Reduce Global Warming
On April 4, 2022, the third part of the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), was released, addressing the need for systemic change to curb global warming. Effective implementation of mitigation measures in the agriculture, forestry and other land use (AFOLU) sector, which accounts for approximately 22% of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, also requires a systems perspective that takes into account national circumstances.
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511. Simple Virus-free Technology Video Manual for Passion Fruit
The introduction of tropical fruit tree varieties and technologies in response to global warming and other factors has the potential to make a significant contribution to future agricultural development and diversification of food and nutrition sources not only in tropical and subtropical countries but also in Japan. The JIRCAS Tropical Tropical Agriculture Research Front (TARF) located on Ishigaki Island is taking advantage of the climatic and geographical conditions to conserve and evaluate genetic resources of tropical crops, develop breeding materials, and develop varieties and cultivation techniques for the Nansei Islands. We have recently published a manual and explanatory video on virus-free technology for domestic passion fruit growers.
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510. Translating Psychometric Scales in Developing Countries
In the field of development assistance, there is a growing focus on psychological research that results in behavior change. This is because the diffusion of agricultural technologies requires a process by which target farmers change their traditional behaviors and transition to new technologies. The JIRCAS project has integrated this psychological approach by aiming for the effective diffusion of agricultural technologies in Madagascar. The study found that the Likert method, a psychological test scale widely used in high-income countries, is not applicable to poor farmers in Madagascar and developed an alternative test scale. This achievement was featured in the Japanese Journal of Personality, and is expected to be useful for valid psychometrics for rural areas in developing countries.
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509. Update on JIRCAS Projects in FY2022
The strength of JIRCAS lies, on the one hand, in understanding and proposing bottom-up approaches to solve problems based on on-site needs in collaboration with local agricultural research, policy, and development organizations, and on the other hand, in disseminating information for solving global issues through collaboration with international agricultural research, policy, and development partners. As we begin FY2022 today, we are reorganizing and launching new projects targeting Africa and the Asia Monsoon region, in order to further demonstrate the strengths in our existing operations.
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508. Characterization of Partial Resistance to Rice Blast for Breeding Sustainable Resistant Varieties
Plants have developed unique defense systems to protect themselves from pathogen and pest attacks. Among plant resistance, partial resistance is a type of resistance that allows disease development but suppresses it to a low degree, and is effective against a wide range of disease races. In a study recently published in the international journal Phytofrontiers, a new experimental breeding line was developed by introducing a single partial resistance gene of six representative partial resistance genes into a basic line susceptible to rice blast, a serious disease that threatens rice production, and the effects and characteristics of the partial resistance genes were clarified.
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507. Utilization of Nutrient-rich Leguminous Woody Plants to Improve Livestock Productivity in Southern Africa
In Mozambique and other countries located in southern Africa, productivity of ruminant livestock during the dry season declines due to a lack of protein and other nutrients, as well as the amount of feed for ruminants. Therefore, we prepared silages of mainly leafy parts of leguminous woody plants mixed with Napier grass or corn stover, and studied their microbial co-occurrence network and silage fermentation information to determine how they can be used as feed. The results showed that woody plant silage in combination with corn stover had good fermentation quality and improved microbial community and metabolic pathways. This technique is expected to improve livestock productivity in the dry season.
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506. Fy Vary Project Promotional Video
A promotional video for the Fy Vary project, which is being implemented by JIRCAS in collaboration with Madagascar, is now available on YouTube.
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505. Doing Fieldwork on Fermented Foods in the World
The book "Doing Fieldwork on Fermented Foods in the World" (edited by YOKOYAMA Satoshi), published by the Rural Culture Association, features field studies on fermented foods produced around the world conducted by researchers in the humanities and natural sciences, including the efforts of JIRCAS to improve the quality of fermented freshwater fish sauce in Laos. A special exhibition of the same title will be held at the Nagoya University Museum from March 22 (Tue) to September 24 (Sat), 2022.