Commemorative Lectures
Commemorative lecture of laureates took place at“Toki Messe・Marine Hall” from 14:30 of 29th
October, after the opening address of the Chairman
Hajime Koizumi.

The substance of the lectures
Main Prize
Mr. Tatsusi Tsuboi
Expert of Namulonge Crops Resource Research Institute
JICA Rice Technology Advisor
The dry-land NERICA rice carried out the important role inprevalence of rice farming in Africa. NERICA was a hybridof between an Asian rice and an African rice which was asuccess to the development by Doctor Jones of Sierra
Leone in 1992. Doctor Jones was the first Laureate ofNiigata International Food Award. Until now, I worked onbreeding NERICA with Doctor Jones.
NERICA has big ears of rice and a lot of ears of rice, andgrows in short time, bear fruit quicker than conventional
types. We cultivate NERICA in dry land which means that
there is no cost to cultivate in wet land, and that ismeaningful to cultivate in swamp area during the rainyseason.
It had been impossible to grow crops in drought area,
chopped tropical forest field, coral lime soil, in theaforementioned places, but NERICA rice grew.
For NERICA newly created region the there is no originallyrice, because there is no rice mill, it becomes very popular
after you tour the villages move rice mill that is loadedwith rice milling machine to the track in the "Mobile RiceMill", rice mill is a lot by now, they can be milled on theirown.
In African countries NERICA is only a new crop. Thefarmers and the researchers do not have muchinformation and experience about rice farming. We knowthat it is necessary to have long-range support for thespread.
I also I would like to continue the activity.

Sano Tozabro Special Award
Dr. C. L .Laxmipathi Gowda
Deputy-Director-General (Research) / ICRISATInternational Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics (ICRRISAT) is the only research institute for theagriculture in the semi-arid area and working for theAfrican staple diet such as sorghum and pearl millet,
peanuts, chickpea and pigeon pea.

ネリカの詳しいデータが示される

I am working on chickpea that is quick to ripen and strongat enduring the heat.
In 1960 ~70 the chickpea had been the main crops in thenorthern India, but after the Revolution of Green, many
farmers started to produce the wheat because of highincome. Though the majority of people in India werevegetarian, they needed the pea for the protein.
Chickpea’s production area was moved from north tosouth where the temperature was higher, and we had todevelop the variety that was quick to ripen and the heatlasting type.
The successful breeding increased the production area
and the production volume. Our research looked like thiswas an end, but of course this was still in the beginningstage. It is forecasted that there is the problem of foodsupply in 2050 since world population is said to be 9billion.
I think the government will need to invest in research anddevelopment on more on agriculture. Technology
provision and information supply to farmers using theMobile phone, the storage facility providing, creating
mechanisms to devote to capital investment by financing
the crops that were stored there as collateral so, it
becomes assistance to food manufacturing andprocessing. The farmers are merely making crops but also
they try to be the innovators or businessperson.

21st Century Hope Award]
Dr. Hiroyuki Nakai
Assistant Professor
Graduate School of Science & Technology
Niigata University
Glucose exists a lot in the natural world, and used various
types in our life. Above all non-digestible oligosaccharide
is the favorable food raw material to the prevention forthe lifestyle-related diseases. Oligosaccharide has manyvarieties but large production is difficult and only few
product is used for industrial needs. In my research, I
noticed at the enzyme phosphorylase that is produced
from microbe. By using this enzyme, beneficial healthy
oligosaccharide variety produced greatly. Now we havemore than 200 kinds including the new types. For
example, there was a functional oligosaccharide which
had excellent physiological function that is included in thesake and the small amount of food fermentation, now it ispossible to make it in the large production. We expected it
to be used in medicine or as a material of cosmetic. From
now on we are going to find new oligosaccharide andmake oligo-library, then Niigata University becomes thestronghold for the oligosaccharide of international
resource.
Now we are solving the function of new oligosaccharideand find many function that are to propagate selectively
intestinal good bacteria and control the multiplication ofbad bacteria. Another one is to propagate theimmunoglobulin A which has the mucosa mucus of thedigestive tract.
In the future, we are thinking to search the usefuloligosaccharide that has specific function, and to makeand produce it.