JIRCAS President, Dr. Masa Iwanaga, attended the 7th G20 Meeting of Agricultural Chief Scientists (G20-MACS) held in San Salvador de Jujuy, Argentina on May 28-30, 2018. The G20 MACS is an initiative which brings together chief agricultural scientists from G20 countries and selected international organizations to deliberate on global research priorities and to facilitate collaboration between institutions with the aim of strengthening research on sustainable agriculture worldwide. JIRCAS has participated G20 MACS since the first meeting was held in Mexico in 2012, and has contributed to discussions on solving critical issues facing the agricultural sector.

The meeting included presentations and group discussions on genome editing, the impact of climate change on agricultural production, and sustainable soil management, which were then used in developing a communique. As Japan is hosting the G20 MACS next year, an introduction of Japan's G20 Presidency and research activities at JIRCAS and the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) were presented at the closing session.

In addition to Dr. Iwanaga, the participants from Japan included 2 representatives from NARO and 4 representatives from the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). Prior to the 2-day discussion meeting, there was an on-site technical visit to the Research Institute for Family Farmers (IPAF), National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) of Argentina.