On November 13, 2025, Indonesian students hosted by the International Field Agriculture Center of the College of Agriculture at Ibaraki University visited the Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS). The visit was organized following the selection of Ibaraki University’s proposal, “New Approaches to Tropical Crop Disease Management,” for the JST Sakura Science Exchange Program.

Through this program and the ASEAN International Mobility for Students (AIMS) exchange scheme with Southeast Asia, a total of 19 undergraduate and graduate students from the Faculty of Agriculture at Gadjah Mada University, the Faculty of Agriculture at Udayana University, and the Faculty of Science and Technology at Aisyiyah University Yogyakarta took part. Many of the participants specialize in plant pathology or microbiology, and the visit aimed to deepen their understanding of new research methods for tropical crop disease control.

In the lecture session, Dr. UKE Ayaka (Researcher, Biological Resources and Post-harvest Division) gave a talk titled “From Agricultural Waste to Sustainable Solutions: Integrating Biomass Utilization and Plant Pathology,” introducing initiatives that combine plant pathology research in Southeast Asia with microbial saccharification technology. She also presented actual fuel pellets made from oil palm biomass to explain the potential applications of the research. This was followed by a presentation from Ms. Hanis Alisa, a trainee from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) currently affiliated with the Life and Earth Sciences Program of the University of Tsukuba’s Graduate School of Science and Technology. She introduced her collaborative research with JIRCAS, titled “Elucidating the Mechanism of Starch Accumulation in Old Oil Palm Trees Through Transcriptome Analysis.”

After the lectures, the students toured the laboratories, where they learned about advanced analytical instruments and ongoing research, deepening their understanding of international research collaboration and scientific and technological development. The visit offered a valuable opportunity to build global networks among young researchers and promote future academic cooperation.