Date

November 14-15, 2011

Venue

Tsukuba International Congress Center, Epochal, Convention Hall 200

Organizer

Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS)

Under the auspices of

• Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Council (AFFRC) Secretariat, MAFF
• National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO)
• National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS)
• National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences (NIAES)
• Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
• Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice)
• Japan Forum on International Agricultural Research for Sustainable Development (J-FARD)

Keynote Speakers:

Achim Dobermann (IRRI)
Concepción Calpe (FAO)
Marco Wopereis (AfricaRice)

Chairpersons:

Yoshimichi Fukuta (JIRCAS)
Parminder Virk (IRRI)
Naoya Fujimoto (JIRCAS)
Naoko Oka (JIRCAS)
Takeshi Kano (JIRCAS)
Seiji Yanagihara (JIRCAS)
Masami Yasunaka (JIRCAS)
Kazumi Yamaoka (JIRCAS)

Speakers and Panelists:

Hiroshi Kato (NICS, NARO)
Masahiro Yano (NIAS)
Hei Leung (IRRI)
Matthias Wissuwa (JIRCAS)
Hiroyuki Kubota (JICA)
Takeshi Kumashiro (AfricaRice)
Jun'ichiro Yamada (JIRCAS)
Jun-ichi Sakagami (JIRCAS)
Qian Qian (China National Rice Research Institute)
Jagdish K. Ladha (IRRI/Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia)
Toshihiro Hasegawa (NIAES)
Kazunobu Toriyama (JIRCAS)
Syuichi Asanuma (Nagoya University.)
Hirohiko Hirochika (NIAS)
Masa Iwanaga (JIRCAS)
Akihiko Uchikawa (MAFF)
Kazuyuki Yagi (NIAES)
Tadakatsu Yoneyama (NARO)

(Panel Discussion was organized as a part of the Global Scale Issue-oriented International Research Network Project commissioned by MAFF)

The symposium was held on November 14-15, 2011 at the Tsukuba International Congress Center, Epochal, Tsukuba City, Japan, attended by 174 guests and participants. Dr. Masa Iwanaga, President of JIRCAS, delivered the Opening Remarks wishing success on the symposium�fs objective to provide an excellent opportunity for discussions on the direction of international rice research. Then, Ms. Noriko Matsuda, Research Councilor of the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Research Council (AFFRC) Secretariat, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) gave the Welcome Statement concerning international rice research and emphasized its importance.
During the Keynote Speeches, Dr. Achim Dobermann, Deputy Director, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Ms. Concepcion Calpe, Senior Economist, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Dr. Marco Wopereis, Deputy Director, Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), reported on trends in global rice research and Global Rice Science Partnership (GRiSP), the world rice market and the current situation of rice research development in Africa, respectively.
In Session 1, "From genome research to rice breeding", presentations and discussions were made on collaborative researches in the field of molecular biology and breeding research; in particular, the importance of correlating genetic and traits information.
In Session 2, "Research Issues for African Rice Promotion", speakers and participants reported and discussed the progress of the Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD) and the current situation of the development of rice varieties for Africa. JIRCAS presented the outline of the rice project implemented in Africa and its collaboration with GRiSP.
Session 3, "Researches for Environment-Friendly Rice Production in Asia", reported technological development of rice cultivation in China and India, and also new research topics related to rice production technologies designed to cope with climate change and yield increase focusing on nitrogen use efficiency.
The Panel Discussion introduced a report on the outputs of a questionnaire survey performed among domestic research institutes and universities, wherein valuable suggestions were obtained concerning the direction of human resource development for young researchers and the need for international collaboration in rice research.
Finally, in his Closing Remarks, Dr. Masami Yasunaka, Vice President of JIRCAS, summarized the discussions of the symposium and declared that JIRCAS will continue to work with international research organizations and contribute as a base for rice research.