Roles of Social Sciences in International Agricultural Research and Development

JIRCAS International Symposium Proceedings

Date: November 4 – 5, 2009
Venue: Yayoi Auditorium, University of Tokyo

 

Both the high food prices which occurred in 2007-2008 and the worldwide economic recession afterwards have seriously affected the economies of developing regions. It is reported that the reduction of the undernourished population, a Millennium Development Goal, has indeed become more difficult to achieve.

The G8 Summit held this year at L’Aquila, Italy which follows the one at Toyako, Hokkaido, Japan last year repeatedly expressed high expectations toward agricultural research and technology development for achieving world food security. Many research issues which need to be tackled in combination with policy and institutional studies have piled up. Those include increase in agricultural investment, dissemination of appropriate technologies, mitigation and adaptation of climate change and so on. Furthermore, the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) emphasizes the importance of policy and institutional studies, listing ‘Policies for people’ as one of the three major strategic objectives in the course of its Change Management initiative.

Social Sciences dealing with agriculture have so far generated plenty of research results, making great contributions to the formulation of agricultural policies in the world and to the methodological improvement of rural development, etc. However, they still have to play a central role in providing effective answers to the challenges of a global scale which we are currently facing. This symposium aims to identify the problems and indicate research directions in Social Sciences which are related to agriculture such as agricultural economics, rural sociology, etc., through the exchange of views among domestic and foreign experts and researchers in this field.

 

Program

Opening Remarks

Keynote Lectures

Chair: Osamu Koyama (JIRCAS)

Session 1: Impacts of Globalized Economy and Climate Change

Chair: Jun Furuya (JIRCAS)

Session 2: Participatory Research and Development

Chair: Ryuichi Yamada (JIRCAS)

Session 3: Impact Assessment of Agricultural Technology

Chair: Shigeki Yokoyama (JIRCAS)

General Discussion

  • Chairs: Masuo Ando and Osamu Koyama (JIRCAS)

Closing Remarks

  • Masami Yasunaka (Vice President of JIRCAS)

Career Profiles

 

Symposium Pictures

Date of issued
Creator Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences
Publisher Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences
Available Online
NII resource type vocabulary Conference Paper
Volume 2009
Language eng

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