In Memory of Sano Touzaburo

Niigata International Food Award

Summary of Commemorative Lectures by the Winners

Copyright ©Niigata International Food Award Foundation. All Rights Reserved

Feeding the billions:
Africa’s role in meeting the needs of the growing global population
Dr. Monty Patrick Jones
Executive Director,
Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, Sierra Leone
The global demand for food will continue to rise rapidly to meet the needs of about
two billion more people and at the same time improve the food security of the 1billion who are already enduring severe food shortages and insecurity.
Paradoxically Africa is both the cause for most concern and the best hope for its
resolution, because while it has the highest proportion of extremely poor andhungry people and fastest growing population it also has the greatest gaps between
the actual and potential crop and livestock yields and the most under used arable
land.
To realise the hope Africa is making great effort to reform its agricultural
institutional structures that will underpin and drive improved agricultural
production that will be derived from improved farm productivity, better
information, communication and learning systems and strengthened human andinstitutional capacity.
These actions depend on a realisation of the mutual interests for continental andglobal collaboration in African agricultural research, development and capacity
strengthening, which Africa is fostering by developing and implementing
guidelines and principles for collaboration and benefiting from development
assistance.
Africa is making progress towards the goal of 6% growth per annum in production
which is required to achieve sustainable improvements in food security while also
meeting the needs of a rapidly expanding population.
The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and the
Framework for African Agricultural Productivity (FAAP) set out how thestakeholders in agricultural research and technology dissemination and adoption
should address their tasks to maximize their effectiveness. This depends on all
agricultural research development, research and capacity strengthening institutions
focusing on how they can add value most effectively to each other’s efforts. Both
African and non-African institutions must collaborate as effectively as they canbecause it is in both their vested interests to do so.
Japan has led the way in such collaboration initially through bilateral ricedevelopment projects but more recently through the international Coalition for
African Rice Development (CARD).
The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) has been at the forefront ofsuch collaboration by catalyzing, facilitating and supporting mutually beneficialcollaboration between African institutions themselves and with non-African partners
in development, science and capacity strengthening. The Forum and its Secretariat
will continue to advance mutually advantageous collaboration.

Development of Hybrid Rice for Food Security
in the World
Long-Ping Yuan
China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center
The current world population is over 6 billion and will reach 8 billion in 2030.
Meanwhile, the annual loss of land to other use is 10 to 35 million hectares, with halfof this lost land coming from cropland. It is expected that 60% more rice should be
produced in 2030 than in 1995. Currently，1 ha for rice production provides food for
27 people. By 2050, 1 ha will have to support 43 people. Facing such severe situationof population growth pressure plus cropland reduction, it is obvious that the only way
to solve food shortage problem is to greatly enhance the yield level of food crops perunit land area through advance of science and technology.
Rice is a main food crop. It feeds more than half of world population. Therefore, toincrease production of rice plays a very important role in food security and povertyalleviation. Theoretically, rice still has great yield potential to be tapped and there
are many ways to raise rice yield, such as building of irrigation works, improvementof soil conditions, cultural techniques and breeding of high yielding varieties. Amongthem, it seems at present that the most effective and economic way available is todevelop hybrid varieties based on the successful experience in China.
It has proved practically for many years that hybrid rice has more than 20% yieldadvantage over improved inbred varieties. In recent years, hybrid rice covers 57% or
16 million ha of the total rice area in China. The nationwide average yield of hybrid
rice is 7.2 t/ha, about 1.4 t/ha higher than that of inbred varieties (5.8 t/ha). The
yearly increased grains in China due to growing hybrid rice can feed 70 million
people each year. Therefore, hybrid rice has been playing a critical role in solving thefood problem of China thus making China the largest food self-sufficient country.
China makes increasing progress in development of hybrid rice technology.
Especially, good results have been achieved in developing super hybrid rice varieties
since the initiation of the super rice research program in 1996. Several pioneer superhybrids have a yield advantage of around 20% over current high yielding hybrids oncommercial scale. In recent years the area planted to super hybrid rice is 2 million hawith an average yield of around 8.5 t/ha. In addition, a two-line super hybrid
P64S/E32 and a three-line super hybrid II-32A/Ming86 created a record yield of 17.1
t/ha and 17.95 t/ha, respectively. In the meantime, grain quality of super hybrid
rice varieties is very good. After the successful development of the first generation
super hybrid rice (yield level at 10.5 t/ha), efforts were focused on breeding thesecond generation super hybrid rice (yield target is 12 t/ha) and good results havebeen obtained. For example, in 2003, the second phase super hybrid rice varieties
yielded over 12 t/ha at five 6.7-ha locations in Hunan Province. In 2004, twelve
6.7-ha or 67-ha locations in the southern provinces reached the yield level of 12 t/ha.
These hybrids have been released for commercial production since 2006. The area
under them was 300,000 ha in 2009 and the average yield was over 9 t/ha. The above
facts indicate that the super hybrid rice shows a very bright future. If super hybrid
rice covers an annual area of 10 million ha in China and calculating by a yield
increase of 2 t/ha, it is expected that the annual increased grains will reach 20

million tons, which means another 70 million more people can be fed every year.
Hybrid rice has been proved to be a very effective approach to greatly increase yield
not only in China, but also outside China. Vietnam and India have commercialized
hybrid rice for years. In 2008, about 600,000 hectares were covered with rice hybrids
in Vietnam. On average, the yield of rice hybrids is 6.3 t/ha while that of the inbred
varieties is 4.5 t/ha. Because of planting hybrid rice on large-scale commercial
production for years, Vietnam becomes the second largest rice export country.
Besides, many other countries, such as the Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia,Pakistan, Egypt and USA, have also achieved great success in extending hybrid ricetechnology. For example, in the Philippines, under technical assistance from China
National Hybrid Rice R&D Center, hybrid rice has been commercialized since 2002.
Especially, a super hybrid rice variety called SL-8 has been developed by myassistant in the Philippines, it was planted to about 3,000 ha in 2003 and the average
yield was 8.5 t/ha, more than doubled the country’s average yield. In 2009, the area
under rice hybrids was expanded to 233,000 ha and the yield advantage is two tons
per ha. Based on this achievement, the Philippines government has made an
ambitious plan. The target is to expand the area of hybrid rice to one million ha by
2012. Even in USA, the super country, hybrid rice also has greater yield advantage(>20%) over their local varieties. The area under hybrid rice was 350,000 ha in 2009.
These facts clearly show that hybrid rice technology developed by China is also
effective to greatly increase rice yield worldwide. If 50% of conventional rice IS
replaced by hybrid rice, and calculating on a 2 t/ha yield advantage of hybrid rice, itis estimated that the total rice production in the world will be increased by another
150 million tons of rice, which can feed 400 million people each year.
Therefore, I firmly believe that hybrid rice, relying on scientific and technologicaladvances and the efforts from all other aspects, including governments, private
sectors, NGO and particularly from FAO and IRRI, will have a very good prospect forcommercial production and continue to play a key role in ensuring the future foodsecurity worldwide in the new century.

Broad Applications of Database of Mushroom Genetics
Fumihiro Fujimori
Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory, Department of Environmental Education,
Faculty of Home Economics, Tokyo Kasei University
Associate Professor
To ensure a stable food supply to accommodate the explosive growth of the world
population, we need to accelerate the development of varieties that incorporate
genetic markers. Seeking ways to use non-edible plant parts is also important toeffectively use limited arable land area. In addition to the food uses of artificiallycultivated mushrooms, they also have a wide range of non-food applications, andtheir non-edible parts have a wide range of uses, making them an ideal modelorganism for applied food science.
Maintaining a stable shape and taste requires experience and expertise incultivating mushrooms, but ensuring large quantities and a stable supply of foodrequires a scientific cultivation plan. Globally, the genomes of many species,
including animals, plants, and microorganisms, have been mapped (as of October
2010, according to NCBI data, the genome of 2503 species are completely mapped orin progress). Among them, the common mushroom and the oyster mushroom are theonly species of edible mushrooms that have completely mapped genomes, which isvery few. Consequently, I have collected the transcriptomes (gene expression data) offive representative species of Japanese edible mushrooms, maitake, king oyster
mushroom, brown beech mushroom, shiitake, and matsutake, and built a databasefor applications such as scientific cultivation plans.
The gene expression database can be thought of as, for example, specifying the geneclusters that form the fruiting bodies known as mushrooms, leading to anunderstanding of the molecular mechanism of the formation of fruiting bodies, andultimately leading to the establishment of artificial cultivation techniques formushrooms species that cannot currently be cultivated. Furthermore, many geneclusters involved in the formation of mutant mushrooms can now be identified,allowing us to begin eliminating variant traits (anomalies) caused by mushroomcultivation in the laboratory and to begin maintaining stable traits. Knowing thegene expression behavior not only allows us to easily control cultivation conditions,but also contributes to non-food applications. As one example, a specific maitake
protein that binds to human lipid rafts on cell surfaces has been found using thedatabase. Rafts have an important role in transporting materials in and out of thecell, but until now, analyzing the underlying behavior was difficult. The discovered
protein has a low cytotoxicity, and because it can be used to analyze the mechanismof transporting materials inside live cells, applications can be developed in fields
such as basic biology and medicine. Thus, the mushroom gene expression databaseprovides immense benefits.