In commemoration of the International Year of Minor Millets 2023, the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS) organized a seminar titled "Millets: Unlocking Potentials for Addressing Nutritional, Agricultural, and Climate Challenges" on September 26, 2023. The event provided a platform for domestic and international researchers to discuss the latest advances in millet research and their potential applications.

On November 8, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) announced that the El Niño phenomenon is expected to continue until at least April 2024 and could affect temperature increases over land and sea.

On November 6, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) released a white paper, The State of Food and Agriculture 2023, which found that the hidden environmental, health and social costs of the agri-food system exceed $10 trillion, with more than 70% of these costs attributable to unhealthy diets and the equivalent of 20% to environment-related factors such as greenhouse gas emissions and land use.

There are both undernutrition and overnutrition in the world today. In the context of agricultural production and nutrition, we present today an article on global food nutrient analysis published in Nature Food (Wang et al., 2023).

Carbon budget is "the maximum amount of cumulative CO2 emissions that can limit global warming to a given level of temperature increase with a given probability, taking into account the effects of other anthropogenic drivers of climate change. A paper published October 30 in Nature Climate Change suggests that only a small amount of the remaining carbon budget (RCB) could be emitted to keep warming below 1.5°C.

In response to the ever-increasing world population and economic development, water use is increasing in various sectors, from domestic water to agriculture, industry and energy. In addition, the increasing frequency of extreme events often leads to water scarcity, with different sectors responding differently to water use. A recent paper published in Environmental Research Letters discusses the complex interplay of various factors (population density, climate conditions, access to water supply systems, public water management plans, and regulatory regimes), how water use responses vary across sectors and regions, and how to mitigate water scarcity and reduce water use in the face of a projected increase in the frequency of extreme events. Given the projected increase in the frequency of extreme events, the paper highlights the need for more detailed data collection by sector and region in order to reduce water scarcity and improve water management strategies.

On October 25, the editors-in-chief of more than 200 journals, including prestigious medical journals such as BMJ and The Lancet, issued a joint statement urging the United Nations, policymakers and experts to consider the climate crisis and biodiversity loss as an integrated global health emergency and to take urgent action to avert catastrophe.

Global trade relies heavily on agricultural commodities, such as grain and cotton, and mineral resources, such as copper, which is essential to the electronics industry. However, over-reliance on these commodities poses serious risks to economies, particularly those with high poverty rates, by exposing them to the vagaries of market shocks. This over-reliance on commodity-based exports, especially when they account for more than 60% of a nation's export earnings, creates a critical dilemma for developing countries. A recent report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) outlined five key challenges associated with commodity dependence and its impact on economic development.

While the international community is busy responding to conflicts and climate change, Mother Earth faces many challenges in feeding a global population that is expected to reach approximately 10 billion people by 2050. Scientific and technological innovations in production and changes in consumption habits are key to providing more nutritious food to more people with minimal environmental impact.environmental impact.