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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.
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504. Climate Change Effects on Blood Cockle Aquaculture
Blood cockle is a marine bivalve mollusk of the Arcidae family that contains hemoglobin in its fluid, with the largest growing to about 5 cm in shell length. This species is common as a food source in Southeast Asian countries and is also cultivated. The main fishing grounds for this species are the estuarine areas where mangrove forests and mud flats are formed, and the surrounding shallow-water areas. This article presents a case study of mass mortality of blood cockle in a sowing aquaculture fishery in Thailand during the rainy season, and considers measures to stabilize production.
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503. Altered Growth and Water-use Efficiency of Tropical Rainforest Trees Due to Climate Change Over the Past 50 Years
Global climate change may have a significant impact on the distribution, growth rate, and carbon fixation of the trees that make up forests. It is especially important to accurately predict the effects of climate change on tropical rainforests because of the huge size of the trees and the large amount of carbon stored in them. However, in tropical rainforests, where the climate is hot and rainy throughout the year and there is no seasonality, it has been difficult to determine long-term growth rates from annual tree rings. We established a new technique for accurately identifying past growth rates from radiocarbon isotope concentrations in the wood of rainforest trees in a Malaysia.
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502. Renewal of the JIRCAS Website
The top page of the JIRCAS website has been renewed as of Tuesday, March 22, 2022. In this renewal, we have revised the design and menu structure of the top page to make it easier to view, user-friendly, and more visually informative.
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501. World Water Day: Development of Appropriate Fertilizer Application for Safe Groundwater
March 22 is World Water Day, a day to raise awareness of the importance of water in various countries around the world. This year's theme is "Groundwater – Making the invisible visible”. One in five children in the world does not have access to enough water for their daily needs. In rural areas of developing countries, drinking well water contains high concentrations of nitrate nitrogen derived from nitrogen fertilizers, which can be hazardous to people's health. Along with the need for infrastructure development to provide safe drinking water, efforts are required to improve the efficiency of nitrogen fertilizer use in the fields and to reduce nitrate-nitrogen concentrations in groundwater.
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500. A Better World－SDG 13
This is the 500th article in the Pick up section that we started on March 8, 2020. Today we are featuring “A Better World” published by the Human Development Forum, which features various education and innovation efforts around the world related to the Sustainable Development Goal on climate change (SDG 13). This publication also introduces the research agenda of the JIRCAS Environment Program on climate change focusing on the Asian Monsoon region.
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499. Dissemination and Use of Differential System Against Rice Blast
Blast disease, caused by a type of filamentous fungus (Pyricularia oryzae), occurs in all regions where rice is grown, from tropical to temperate zones. Blast disease is caused by the repeated use of a single rice cultivar over a wide area (monoculture), which results in a dominant race of fungi capable of infecting that particular resistant cultivar, and is induced by low temperatures during the growing season, such as cold injury, and excessive application of fertilizer. Damage is increasingly being reported not only in temperate regions but also in tropical regions of Africa and Asia. Breeding rice cultivars that take advantage of genetic diversity and developing cultivation methods will be important for rice cultivation, especially in economically poor developing regions.