Dr. Yasuhiro Tsujimoto, Project Leader of JIRCAS and the SATREPS VaryAla Project, traveled to Madagascar to conduct a preparatory survey for the launch of the project.

At the start of the project, consultations were held with the local project coordinator, the JICA office, and counterpart organizations to advance the establishment of rules and the implementation framework for smooth project operations. Preparations were also made for the 1st JCC meeting and the project kickoff meeting.

Visits were conducted to meet personnel of relevant JICA technical cooperation projects (SHEP, Papriz, FyVary II) and their activity sites to exchange views on inter-project collaboration. In addition, preparations were carried out for the upcoming CARD General Assembly, scheduled for late October.

Regarding the progress of individual research topics, information was shared with counterpart researchers and plans for the next steps were reviewed.