On March 18, 2025 (Tuesday), 30 first-year students from Yamagata Prefectural Touoh Gakkan High School visited JIRCAS as part of their "Tsukuba Science Tour."

During this visit, after introducing JIRCAS’s research activities, Senior Researcher UNO Kenichi from the Rural Development Division presented his research on Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD)—a technology increasingly used around the world to reduce methane emissions from rice paddies. Although AWD is being widely adopted, challenges remain, such as increased labor for farmers and difficulty applying the method in certain regions. To address these issues and make the technology more user-friendly for farmers, JIRCAS is conducting collaborative research with partner institutions in Southeast Asia.

The students asked many questions following explanations about water level management methods in rice paddies that help reduce farmers’ workload, and about cases where rice yields increased as a result of using the technology. The visit provided an opportunity to consider the importance of adapting technologies to suit local natural environment and social conditions, and how scientific data-based research and technological development are essential to that process.

Students were also highly interested in hearing about Dr. Uno’s career path, including his experience at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and JICA before becoming a researcher at JIRCAS.

We hope that this lecture helped students feel a stronger connection to global issues such as food security and environmental problems in developing regions, and that it will serve as an opportunity for them to think about their future career paths.