A group of 33 first-year students and two teachers from Tochigi Prefectural Senior High School visited JIRCAS on November 10, 2022 through the "Tsukuba Science Tour” program. This was the third consecutive year for the school to organize a visit to JIRCAS. Considering the number of visitors, the students were divided into two groups for an indoor lecture on introduction to JIRCAS research activities and an outdoor lecture on rice cultivation at the Hachimandai Experimental Field.

In the indoor lecture, Mr. UNO Kenichi (Senior Researcher, Rural Development Division) introduced paddy field water management technology that leads to reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and its social implementation, using a case study in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, where JIRCAS is working on a project under the Environment Program. Meanwhile, in the outdoor lecture at the Hachimandai Experimental Field, Dr. SASAKI Kazuhiro (Researcher, Biological Resources and Post-harvest Division) introduced rice cultivation in the tropics and in Japan, and had the participants observe the characteristics of various rice cultivars.

Despite the long distance travel from early in the morning, the students listened attentively to the lectures and took notes, which was impressive. After the lectures, the students engaged in a Q&A session and exchanged opinions with the lecturers on a wide range of topics, including not only the content of their research but also the research environment and daily life overseas. We hope that this visit was of some help in our efforts of “sowing seeds for the students' future”.