The JIRCAS Tropical Agriculture Research Front (TARF) held the 15th Open House from November 8 (Mon) to 14 (Sun), 2021, to introduce the research activities of TARF to the citizens of Ishigaki and the general public. Unfortunately, the TARF Open House, which started in 2006, was cancelled last year as a preventive measure against the spread of infection due to the new coronavirus.

JIRCAS has been conducting research and development of agricultural production technologies that can be applied to tropical and subtropical developing regions and island areas, taking advantage of the subtropical climate and geographical island conditions, and the fields and facilities located in TARF. Therefore, at the TARF Online Open House, we introduced our research activities conducted overseas and in Japan, including information on our target crops and local conditions.

As this was the first time for us to hold this event online, we have prepared the contents of the exhibition and introduction so that everyone can enjoy it. We hope that everyone, from children to adults, enjoyed the hands-on experience that only an online event can provide, as we increased the content of research information that can be learned by watching videos. The special website of JIRCAS for this event was accessed 1,620 times from Japan and seven other countries, and the JIRCAS YouTube channel was viewed 1,145 times both in Japan and overseas, for a total of 2,765 accesses to the event. Thank you very much for your participation.

The Q&A session of the 2 special mini-lectures and 3 mini-lectures was streamed live on the JIRCAS channel on November 14 (Sun). The lecturers responded to questions received from Ishigaki Island, remote islands, Okinawa Prefecture, and overseas. The questions and answers have been converted to text and are available on the special website for your viewing.

https://www.jircas.go.jp/sites/default/files/QandA_TARF_Openhouse2021.p… (In Japanese only)

In addition, the video of the lectures and Q&A session on November 14 has been edited, and is available on the special website. If you missed it, please watch on the special site below.

https://www.jircas.go.jp/ja/event/2021/tarfopenhouse (In Japanese only)

We hope that this event will be useful to the citizens of Ishigaki City, as well as everyone in Japan and abroad, and that it will serve as an opportunity to experience and understand agriculture. 

All of us at TARF hope that next year's event will be open to the public as usual.

This event was featured in a newspaper, The Yaeyama Mainichi (Nov 9, 2021, page 9) with an article titled “TARF: Open to the public online”.