It's been almost a year since the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was first confirmed in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019. Since then, the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has rapidly spread around the world due to movement of people and economic activities. The impact of the COVID-19 health and economic crisis has swept the globe, particularly impacting vulnerable societies with limited access to the social insurance system, rapidly widening poverty and inequality, and the likelihood of a hunger pandemic has also become a serious concern. With the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns about global food security have increased, and the global food system has come to the fore as a channel of transmission. In discussing the impact of COVID-19 on the food system, distribution, consumption and production are of particular interest. On November 10, 2020, JIRCAS will hold a symposium on the theme of COVID-19 and the global food system to commemorate the 50th anniversary of its founding. The registration deadline is on November 4th until 5:00 PM. Please register and join us.

It has been 50 years since the Tropical Agriculture Research Center (TARC), the predecessor of the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), was established in 1970. At this turning point, we have published a commemorative magazine of our 50th foundation anniversary in order to summarize the history of organizational changes and activities so far as we aim to further leap toward a new era.

On November 10, 2020 (Tue), JIRCAS will hold an international symposium on “The role of international collaboration in agricultural research to address challenges in the post-COVID-19 global food system” to commemorate its 50th founding anniversary. We are pleased to announce the program with a brief introduction of the speakers and panelists.

The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security Research (CCAFS), an international network of agricultural research institutes, has published "Perspective aricle: Actions to reconfigure food systems" in the journal Global Food Security. According to the article, reconfiguration of the food systems must include rerouting trajectories and appropriate intervention targeting must take into account the diversity of farmers and agricultural systems.

On October 19th, Bill Gates updated his blog with details on his current book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need”, and announced that the book will be published on February 16, 2021. The book aims to explain the science of climate change, propose a plan to build the tools that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero, and suggest concrete steps that governments, companies, and individuals can take to make it happen.

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) published the report "Human Costs of Disasters: An overview of the last 20 years 2000-2019" to mark the "International Day for Disaster Reduction" on October 13, 2020. The report emphasized that extreme weather events such as floods and storms have come to dominate the disaster landscape in the 21st century.

In October 2020, Nature magazine featured a collection of articles and perspectives with the theme "Sustainable solutions to end hunger” and published an editorial "Ending hunger: science must stop neglecting smallholder farmers”. Policy makers noted that many agricultural research publications that they assessed have not fully addressed the challenges faced by smallholder farmers, despite the urgent need for interventions to tackle hunger.

The Sahel region of Africa which has a recurring problem of drought is now experiencing catastrophic levels of flooding. Indiscriminate and extreme violence has occurred throughout the Sahel, forcing more than 3.5 million people to evacuate domestically or across national borders. This is the worst and fastest-growing humanitarian crisis in the world, but the flooding has further exacerbated the crisis to a threatening level.

In October 2020, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) was awarded the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize. The award recognizes its efforts to combat hunger and contribute to bettering conditions for peace conditions in conflict areas. The impact of climate change and the economic crisis has exacerbated people's plight in recent years, and agricultural research that supports the dietary habits of people in climate- and socio-economically vulnerable areas is essential.