Food production in Africa has increased over the past two decades. Strangely, however, so has the number of food-insecure people. This problem is exacerbated by poor transportation networks, low surplus production in many countries, and high transportation costs. A World Bank report sheds light on the connections between transportation, logistics, and food security in Africa, and suggests ways to increase the resilience of food systems.

June 29th is the International Day of the Tropics established by the United Nations. On this occasion, I thought about the role of JIRCAS's sole substation, the Tropical Agriculture Research Front (TARF, commonly known as Nekken). 

Droughts are becoming more frequent and severe around the world. According to a new analysis by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the amount of land area affected by drought doubled between 1900 and 2020, with droughts becoming more severe on 40% of land areas in recent decades.

Higher-than-average temperatures can lead to reduced average crop yields as well as increased crop yield variability by exacerbating hot and dry conditions if production systems are unable to mitigate the effects of these stresses. The Agricultural Market Information System (AMIS) has published an article on the importance of monitoring the impact of climate risks on crop yield variability.

To respond to climate change and achieve sustainable food production, we need to strengthen resilience to adverse environments. Researchers have been working on crop stress tolerance to evaluate resilience under single stress conditions and to improve its genetics. However, in actual farmland, growth and yield are often limited when crops are grown under multi-stress conditions, a combination of stresses rather than a single stress. Although there is a strong need for research on multi-stress tolerance, it is very challenging for researchers because of the complexity of experimental systems, and it is desirable to solve technical problems such as improving phenotyping techniques and estimating plasticity.

June 17th is World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought 2025, and this year we will highlight the potential of land restoration. However, land restoration requires scientific knowledge of the local climate, environment, and soil conditions, and there are many difficult challenges to address. As an example, we will introduce the issue of salt-damaged farmland in the world's drylands.

Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and severity of droughts, amplifying their impacts on agricultural, environmental, and hydrological systems. Increases in the severity of hydrological and agricultural droughts have been observed in several regions in recent decades due to widespread increases in atmospheric evaporative demand (AED) and regional decreases in precipitation. A paper published in Nature found an increasing trend in the severity of droughts around the world by developing an ensemble of high-resolution global drought datasets from 1901 to 2022.

The oceans are facing an unprecedented crisis due to climate change, plastic pollution, ecosystem loss, and overexploitation of marine resources. From June 9 to 13, world leaders, scientists, activists, and business executives are gathering in Nice, France, for the Third United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC3) to address the growing crisis in the world's oceans.

Scientists from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography reported that the seasonal peak of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration at the NOAA Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii exceeded 430 ppm for the first time.