Today October 16th is World Food Day. The theme for 2020 is “Grow, Nourish, Sustain. Together. Our actions are our future”. World Food Day was designated by the United Nations in 1981 as an international day around the world to commemorate the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on October 16, 1945.

In October 2020, the World Bank published the report “Poverty and Shared Prosperity 2020 - Reversals of Fortune”. According to the report, although extreme poverty was steadily declining, this is the first time in 20 years that the number of extremely poor people will increase due to the COVID-19 crisis.

The Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition published its new report, “Food Systems of the Future: Humanity, Our Earth, and Prosperity” on September 29, 2020. This report reveals that the underlying challenges are deep and that the current food systems fail to produce the foods essential for healthy diets in sufficient quantity and at affordable prices. In addition, food production is also driving the degradation of the natural environment and can have a profound impact on future generations. Although the report was commissioned in 2018, COVID-19 has exposed the vulnerabilities and fragility of the global food systems.

October 6th is designated as “International Cooperation Day". On this day in 1954, the Japanese government decided to join the Colombo Plan and started the Official Development Assistance (ODA) to developing countries. Since 1955, Japan has been promoting technical cooperation such as accepting trainees from overseas and dispatching experts. To commemorate this initiative, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) designated October 6 as "International Cooperation Day" in 1987 to promote public understanding and participation in international cooperation.

Established in 1970 as the Tropical Agriculture Research Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, JIRCAS is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year (2020). An international symposium will be held on November 10 (Tue) to commemorate the 50th founding anniversary. We are organizing a webinar-style event under the theme “The role of international collaboration in agricultural research to address challenges in the post-COVID-19 global food system”. Please refer to the 50th Anniversary page for the program and other details. Online registration will start on October 8th.

On September 25, 2020, a report entitled “High-impact marine heatwaves attributable to human-induced global warming” was published in Science magazine. The report warns that anthropogenic climate change is causing unusually increased ocean temperatures, and the frequency of marine heatwaves has increased more than 10-fold which could have a tremendous impact on the marine ecosystem.

The World Bank published the “The Human Capital Index 2020 Update: Human Capital in the Time of COVID-19” on September 16, 2020. The Human Capital Index (HCI) is an international metric that measures the human capital that a child born today can expect to attain by the age of 18, taking into account the current health and education situation of the country. The impact of the new coronavirus could slow down the progress in improving human capital.

The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (Montreal, Canada) released the Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 (GBO-5) on September 15, 2020. This year marks the final year of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, which include the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets (Aichi Targets) around the strategic goals. However, assessment of the progress showed that none of the targets were completely achieved.

The Arctic sea ice, which is an important climate change indicator, has reached its annual minimum extent after the summer melt season this year. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reported that this year the Arctic sea ice has shrunk to the second lowest extent in history. It is believed that the heat caused the sea ice to melt over a wide area from above and below due to the extremely high air and water temperatures.