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【JIRCAS Mail Magazine No.22 (Aug. 2021)】
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The world population in 2021 will be 7.875 billion, an increase of 80 million from last year. Asia's population is expected to decline from growth to decline by 2100, while Africa's population is expected to continue to grow.
https://www.jircas.go.jp/en/program/proc/blog/20210708_0

It was recently reported that the number of people infected with COVID-19 in the world has surpassed 200 million. Due to the impact of the spread of the new coronavirus, the world's starving population in 2020 is estimated to be 720 million to 811 million, an increase of about 118 million people compared to 2019.
https://www.jircas.go.jp/en/program/proc/blog/20210714

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■ Latest Topics
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● Evaluating the Effectiveness of Greenhouse Gas Reduction in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam
Adopting a combined system of rice farming and beef cattle production can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a whopping 22%.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301479721009622?via…

● World's First Discovery of a Biological Nitrification Inhibitor in Maize Roots
This new BNI compound was found to increase the efficiency of nitrogen fertilizer available to plants, which not only reduces the amount of fertilizer applied, but also contributes to the reduction of environmental pollution.
https://www.jircas.go.jp/en/release/2021/press202104

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■ New Technology and Research Results from JIRCAS
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This year, Mountain Day was celebrated in Japan on August 8 (national holiday). In this issue, we would like to highlight the importance of sustainable mountain development by introducing the international joint researches in the field of forestry conducted by JIRCAS.

● Possibility to introduce genomic selection into tree breeding for important timber species distributed in the tropical rainforests of Southeast Asia
Genetic improvement of seedlings has ever been carried out in tropical rainforest tree species. These results open up the possibility of significantly shortening the time required for genetic improvement of forest trees, which previously required a long time for trait evaluation, and suggest that genomic selection for tree growth is also effective.
https://www.jircas.go.jp/en/publication/research_results/2020_c06

●Temperature-regulated leaf production in the family Dipterocarpaceae
In seedlings of Dipterocarpaceae forestry trees in tropical Southeast Asia, trees respond sensitively to small changes in temperature, increasing or decreasing leaf production. Establishing nurseries in several areas with different temperature conditions and making seedlings of different growths available would contribute to a stable supply planting materials and sustainable timber production..
https://www.jircas.go.jp/en/publication/research_results/2020_c07

● Development of models for estimating above ground biomass of mangrove at regional scale
Mangroves grow in brackish water areas in the tropics and subtropics, and have attracted attention in recent years due to their high carbon storage capacity. The newly developed model makes it possible to estimate aboveground biomass that can be used to evaluate the carbon storage capacity of mangroves.
https://www.jircas.go.jp/en/publication/research_results/2020_c08

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【Edited and published by】
Information and Public Relations Office
Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS)
1-1 Ohwashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan