Major Symposia and Seminars
1. Overview of NIAES 30th Anniversary Programand Commemorative Symposium
The National Institute of Agro-Environmental Sciences(NIAES) was established in 1983 through reorganizationof the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences. Afterbecoming an independent administrative corporation in
April 2001, it marked its 30th anniversary in December
2013. In commemoration, on Friday, December 13 NIAES
held the “National Institute of Agro-Environmental
Sciences 30th Anniversary Symposium ‘Agriculture andthe Environment in the 21st Century’” at Shinjuku Meiji
Yasuda Life Hall in Tokyo. Director-General Tetsuzo
Yasunari of the Research Institute for Humanity andNature delivered the symposium’s keynote address, and
NIAES researchers described the history of our 30 yearsof research and the latest research achievements in theform of one special report and three research topics. In apanel discussion called “Agro-Environmental Research inthe 21st Century,” experts from various fields discussed
the direction of future research. Please see other articles
in this issue for details.
2. Keynote Address
Future Earth: The Significance of Asian Environmental
Research
Tetsuzo Yasunari (Director-General, National
Institutes for the Humanities, Research Institute for
Humanity and Nature)
For the keynote address, NIAES invited Tetsuzo
Yasunari, Director-General of the Research Institutefor Humanity and Nature, which is one of the National
Institutes for the Humanities, an inter-university research
institute corporation. He both described Future Earth,
an international program for new research on global
environmental change that was formally proposed inspring 2013, and explained the importance of Future Earthin Monsoon Asia. Mr. Yasunari is a member of Future
Earth’s International Council for Science; he bears theimportant responsibility of heading the Science Councilof Japan’s Future Earth Committee.
Mr. Yasunari began by addressing the current state of
the global environment and explained that a limit (tipping
point) is being crossed because of the 20th century’s
rapid increase in human activity. He then described theevents leading to establishment of Future Earth that has
the objectives of providing knowledge society needs todeal with the risks of global environmental change andfacilitating the transition to a sustainable global society.
On the topic of Monsoon Asia he observed that the naturalenvironment in this zone of great crustal movement
enabled the viability of wet rice agriculture, which hasserved as the foundation to feed the world’s largest
population. On the other hand, because today’s rapid
modernization and globalization have made this region
into “a hotspot of global pollution,” he argued that there
is an urgent need to build an international framework,
called Future Earth in Asia, that includes researchers,
policymakers, and citizens to pursue the transition tosustainable societies throughout Asia.
The details of the address are also contained in thefollowing article, which Mr. Yasunari handed out on thatday. Interested readers should read it in conjunction withthis article.
Yasunari, T. (2013) Future Earth: A New International
Framework for Research on Global Environmental
Change. Environmental Research Quarterly, No. 170,
5–13. (in Japanese)
3. Panel Discussion
In the panel discussion, which was chaired by NIAES
President Miyashita, five stakeholders discussed “AgroEnvironmental Research in the 21st Century.”
From the standpoint of farmers, Ms. Yuko Kobayashi,
director of the NPO Heroines of the Country, expressed
her hopes that agro-environmental research will help
solve problems that farmers face in the fields. As an
example, she cited the high-temperature crop damage thathas emerged in the last few years.
From the standpoint of facilitating local government
agricultural policy, experimentation, and research, Mr.
Hiromichi Kato, director of the Ibaraki Agriculture
Institute, expressed his wish that the latest research
results for agro-environmental technologies in fields
such as global warming response measures, resource
conservation, and reducing environmental burdens would
be quickly shared with farmers at the local level.
Professor Takashi Kosaki from Tokyo Metropolitan
University indicated his hope, from the perspective of
the management and use of land including farmland,that the results of agro-environmental research will be
communicated to not only farmers, but to people from allwalks of life.
From the perspective of the social sciences, Professor
Kentaro Yoshida from Nagasaki University indicated thepossibility that, through the fusion of the natural sciences
and social sciences, the partnership of science with policy
and industry, and other linkages, diverse stakeholders
will become users of agro-environmental research. His
observations were based on discussions at a plenary
session of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity
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Research Overview in FY2013
and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), in which he had been
participating until the previous day.
Finally, from the perspective of consumers andcitizens, who seek food and environmental safety, science
writer Waki Matsunaga observed that the close linkageof research results with political policy over the 30-year
history of NIAES is a form of regulatory science, andexpressed her hope that this will be further facilitated.
Based on these opinions and expectations, thepanelists further advanced the discussion on the directionthat agro-environmental research should take fromperspectives such as linkages between basic research
and applied research, between specialized research andinterdisciplinary research, and the way in which scienceand society relate to one another. Participants deepened
their awareness that pursuing interdisciplinary researchwith the participation of diverse stakeholders benefitssociety by producing important initiatives for solving
agro-environmental problems in which various factors are
related in complex ways; these initiatives can contributeto solving food and environmental problems in our 21stcentury world.
With this main symposium as the central event, we
also held side events for each research field throughout
the 2013 fiscal year.

NIAES 30th Anniversary Workshop 1
Development of Techniques to Reduce the Risk of
Residual POP Pesticides in Vegetables–13th Annual Seminar on Organic Chemicals
Studies–
Every year the National Institute for AgroEnvironmental Sciences (NIAES) holds a seminar
to discuss problems related to pesticides and otherorganic chemicals in the environment. On October 30,
2013, a diverse group of 105 people from independentadministrative corporations and other research institutions,prefectural agriculture experimental stations, universities,
government agencies, private enterprises, interested
organizations (such as agricultural cooperatives), and thegeneral public participated in the seminar.
Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) are a group of
substances that signatories to an international convention
must endeavor to reduce and abolish. Seven of the 22
substances covered by the convention were formerly
used as pesticides in Japan. Some of these — drin family
pesticides and heptachlor — still remain in the soil, andsometimes are detected in excess of residue limits ingourd family vegetables. This is a problem that subverts
food safety; producing districts must address the problem
in ways such as voluntary restraints on production or
performing broad-based soil and crop testing.
32

At the seminar, seven speakers, who had beendeveloping techniques to prevent and reduce crop
contamination by residual soil POPs, presented theirresearch findings. Participants then had an in-depth
discussion on the challenges of and outlook on pesticides
that persist in soil.

NIAES 30th Anniversary Workshop 2
On the Strategic Use of Spatial Information
Technologies for Crop Intelligence in Producing
Areas
In farming areas during recent years, declining crop
quality caused by high-temperature damage, aging of the
farming population, and fewer farmers make it necessary
for production to reduce physical labor, raise value
added, and increase resilience. In responding to theserequirements, it is important to first precisely diagnose
the state of crop growth in each geographical region, andthen appropriately manage production.
To achieve this, in addition to “Japanese-style precision
agriculture” that has been traditionally practiced, there
are expectations for the use of regional-scale intelligencethat makes the maximum use of remote sensing and otherspatial information technologies (information collection,
analysis, monitoring, forecasting, and decision-making
support).
For these reasons the National Institute for AgroEnvironmental Sciences hosted a workshop on October
31 in Akihabara, where participants discussed ways
to strategically use spatial information technologies incrop-producing areas. The workshop had 94 participantsfrom organizations including the national and prefectural
governments,
publicly
operated
experimentationand extension agencies, independent administrative
corporation research institutes, and private enterprises.
The participants described the latest trends in spatial
information technologies, and also discussed means andcooperation arrangements for their application in farming
areas throughout Japan.

NIAES 30th Anniversary Workshop 3
National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences
Public Seminar
Agriculture that Supports Abundant Life
Agriculture has long been conducted in harmony
with ecosystems. Agricultural ecosystems, which serveas habitat for many of the very familiar organisms suchas the red dragonfly and Japanese rice fish, are nurtured
by farming activities. Agriculture has benefited frombiodiversity, while at the same time creating distinctive

ecosystems that differ from wilderness and havemaintained biodiversity; however, that is generally not
well known. Therefore, to inform the general public about
the relationship between agriculture and biodiversity, we
held a public seminar in Tokyo (Akihabara) on Tuesday,
November 5 with 111 participants comprising 16 membersof the general public, five people in farming and otheractivities, 24 from companies and other organizations,nine from universities, 24 from research institutions, 21
from local governments, and 12 from the Ministry ofAgriculture, Forestry and Fisheries and other government
agencies.

The environment that rice paddies provide fororganisms
From the presentation by Nagoya University Professor
Yoshihiro Natsuhara
The seminar featured research on the relationshipof agriculture and rural areas to biodiversity, indicatororganisms that measure the effectiveness of conservation
agriculture, and bird diversity in relation to landscapestructure and farmland consolidation. Participantspresented examples of how agricultural production
and biodiversity are both achieved compatibly and also
explained how the general public conceives biodiversity.
The discussion featured questions and views from avariety of standpoints, ranging from the intrinsic problemsof biodiversity to problems directly connected to farms.
NIAES intends to make use of participants’ views in
future research.

NIAES 30th Anniversary Workshop 4
The 27th Symposium of NIAES Agro-Meteorology
Division
Experts in Agro-Meteorology Division of NIAES
is leading and/or joining various international research
networks and projects to promote scientific researches

on agriculture and atmospheric environment. To promotethese international activities, we held the 27th Symposiumof NIAES Agro-Meteorology Division “International
Research Networks and Projects in Agricultural
Meteorology and Their Collaborations” at International
Congress Center EPOCHAL Tsukuba on 2 December 2013
with support of the Society of Agricultural Meteorologyof Japan, Crop Science Society of Japan, and JapaneseSociety of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition. After keynote
lectures by Prof. Takehisa Oikawa (Professor Emeritus,
The University of Tsukuba) and Prof. Joon Kim (Seoul
National University, Korea), seven experts talked about
objectives and activities in international networks andprojects they have been leading or participating, anddiscussed collaborations between those networks andprojects. The networks and projects talked about in the
symposium are as follows: the Monsoon Asia AgroEnvironmental Research Consortium (MARCO); Global
Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases(GRA); FLUXNET/AsiaFlux (the flux monitoring tower
flux network for carbon and water cycles), Integrated
Land Ecosystem-Atmosphere Processes Study (iLEAPS),MINCERnet (a global research alliance to support thefight against heat stress in rice), Global crop FACE
Network, and the Agricultural Model Intercomparisonand Improvement Project (AgMIP). The participants in
the MARCO-AgMIP Workshop (2-6 December 2013)
joined the symposium and made 14 poster presentations.
This is the first in the 30 years to use English as theofficial language of the Symposium of NIAES AgroMeteorology Division. About 50 participants including
11 from overseas cultivated mutual understanding for the
future collaboration.

NIAES 30th Anniversary Workshop 5
31st Seminar on Soil and Water
Cadmium and Arsenic Absorption by Crops, and Risk
Management
On February 26 the Seminar on Soil and Water washeld at the Tsukuba International Congress Center with
about 120 participants. There is heightened awareness ofand concern about food safety in Japan and abroad. With
regard to cadmium, rice standards based on the Food
Sanitation Act were reviewed in February 2011, but there
is also a need to expedite cadmium reduction measuresfor other crops as well. For arsenic, it has been found thatin Japan rice makes a large contribution to the intake fromagricultural products. At the seminar Masanori Aoki,
Assistant Section Chief in the Food Safety and Consumer
Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry
and Fisheries, delivered a lecture on the situation in Japanand internationally, and on future initiatives. This was
33Research Overview in FY2013
followed by a presentation of NIAES achievements insuppressing crop absorption of cadmium. Dr. Nobuo Suzui
from the Japan Atomic Energy Agency then used a video
in his talk to explain the dynamics of cadmium in plantbodies. Shimane University Associate Professor Shingo
Matsumoto described techniques to suppress arsenic
uptake by rice plants by using agricultural materials andwater management. Finally, Tomohito Arao of NIAES
further developed the discussion with an overview of“Development of Cultivation Management Techniques
to Mitigate Arsenic Risk in Rice Plants,” a project which
has been in progress since the 2013 research year undera commission from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry
and Fisheries.

NIAES 30th Anniversary Workshop 6
4th Agro-Environment Inventory Workshop
Building an Inventory for Efficiently Assessing theRisks from Agricultural Chemicals
On Thursday, February 27 at the Tsukuba International
Congress Center, NIAES held a workshop with about 90
participants on the theme of “building an agriculturalchemical inventory” necessary for assessing the risks
from agricultural chemicals, which are indispensable
agricultural inputs.
Associate Professor Takeshi Kobayashi from
Yokohama National University delivered the keynote
address, “Current State of Information Infrastructure on
Health Risks of Chemicals,” which was followed by alecture from Atsushi Nakamura of the National Instituteof Technology and Evaluation about the provision ofbasic information on chemicals under the Act on the
Evaluation of Chemical Substances and Regulation of
Their Manufacture. Next was a lecture by Lin Bin-Le of
the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science andTechnology about assessing and managing the ecologicalrisks that can be addressed under the same law. NIAES
personnel Iwasaki and Nagai delivered reports on the use ofgeographical information in building agricultural chemical
inventories and in assessing exposure and ecological risks.
In the discussion, participants exchanged information on
the challenges of database creation, management, andoperation, and on effective database use.

34

During the break, visitors viewed displays of soil andinsect specimens and research results were presented in
the lobby.

NIAES 30th Anniversary Workshop 7
Microbial Ecology and Functions Useful to Agriculture,
as Discovered from Nucleic Acids
Nearly all the microorganisms in nature are yetunknown microorganisms that are hard to culture. NIAES
has developed techniques to directly extract, from soil
and other environments, the nucleic acid molecules (i.e.,
DNA and RNA) that contain the genetic information of
microorganisms, and then analyze the types and functionsof these unknown microorganisms. On the auspicious
occasion of NIAES’ 30th anniversary, this public seminar
focused on research covering microbial ecology andfunctions, which have become known from nucleic acids
extracted from the environment. The seminar featured
lectures from the scientists who are leading research inthis field; they introduced research findings obtained thus
far at NIAES. The 164 participants, ranging from students
to company personnel, provided us with valuable opinions
via questionnaires and other means.

Akihabara Convention Hall, Friday, March 27

MARCO-FFTC Workshop
Genetically Modified Crops in Asia
Two-thirds of the world’s poor live in the Asia-Pacificregion. In this region there is great interest in geneticallymodified (GM) crops, the purpose of which is to provide
a stable food supply. For that reason, NIAES and the
Food & Fertilizer Technology Center for the Asian andPacific Region (FFTC) invited experts from abroad andjointly held a workshop on the theme of “Benefits andRisks of GM Crops in Asia” from October 8–10, 2013 at
the Tsukuba International Congress Center. Enthusiastic
discussions facilitated by lectures, poster presentations,and other means clearly revealed the similarities anddifferences among Asia-Pacific countries with regard toa broad array of considerations ranging from GM cropdevelopment to regulation. NIAES shall continue to takethe lead in expanding networking by creating venues for
information exchange and technical cooperation.

MARCO Workshop
Assessing and Reducing Environmental Burdens for
Sustainable Agro-Ecosystem Management
NIAES, in partnership with the Tohoku University
Graduate School of Agricultural Science and theInstitute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences,
is conducting joint international research* aimed atassessing and reducing environmental burdens in agroecosystems. To disseminate research results, we helda MARCO Workshop called “Assessing and Reducing
Environmental Burdens for Sustainable Agro-Ecosystem
Management” from October 16 to 19 at the Tsukuba
International Congress Center (Tsukuba City) and othervenues. The workshop had a total of 68 participants fromsix countries, including four leading researchers fromabroad, and featured a lively exchange of views.
* Research projects: “Comparative Research on the
Nitrogen Cycles of Agro-Environment Watersheds inJapan and China, and Their Impacts on Water Quality,”and “Development of Techniques to Reduce Greenhouse
Gases Arising from Rice Paddies, and Assessment of
Their Reduction Potential”

Public Seminar on Agro-Environmental Technology in
Niigata
An Agricultural Approach to Alleviating Burdens on
the Global Environment
Every year the National Institute for AgroEnvironmental Sciences hosts public seminars to broadly
inform the public of our research results and to strengthen
our collaboration with the staff of prefectural and local
governments for the dissemination of our results. With thesupport of Niigata Prefecture and the cooperation of the
Niigata Agricultural Research Institute, this year we held aseminar in Nagaoka City with over 260 participants. At theseminar, six researchers described techniques for rice plant
growth forecasting and cultivation management using gridclimatic values,* techniques for limiting emissions of thegreenhouse gas methane from rice paddies, and organic
cultivation techniques for rice growing and biodiversity.
There was also lively debate on subjects such as “Howshould one go about limiting greenhouse gas emissions
while also maintaining biodiversity?”* Estimated climatic value for each square, about 1 km2 insize, of a grid drawn along latitude and longitude lines.

Photo. Workshop session.

35

Research Overview in FY2013
Conferences, Workshops, and Research Meetings
Title

Place

Date

Participants

MARCO-FFTC Joint International Workshop 2013: “Benefits andRisks of Genetically Modified Food Crops in Asia”

Tsukuba

8-10 Oct 1383

Symposium FY 2013This international workshop was jointly organized by the Food and Fertilizer Technology Center (FFTC) to collaborate
with the Monsoon Asia Agro-Environmental Research Consortium (MARCO), and supported by College of Agriculture of
Ibaraki University and National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences. The workshop aimed to exchange the information on
genetically modified food crops, to discuss on uncertainty regarding benefits and potential risks, and to establish a platform
for technical cooperation and capacity building among Asian countries.
MARCO International Workshop 2013: “Evaluation and Mitigationof Environmental Impacts in Agricultural Ecosystems for Sustainable
Management”

Tsukuba

16-19 Oct 1468This Workshop based on international collaborative projects between Japan and China, supported by the Japan Science andTechnology Agency (JST), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST), and the Natural Science Foundationof China (NSFC). The Workshop highlighted the current situation and major progress of these Japan-China collaborative
projects by discussing nutrient cycling in agricultural watersheds and mitigation of greenhouse gas emission from ricepaddies.
The Ecosystem Informatics Workshop I (NIAES 30th Anniversary):“Strategic Use of Geoinformation Technologies for Intelligent Crop
Production.”Tokyo

31 Oct 13

94

The advanced use of geoinformation technologies such as remote sensing and GIS is crucial for the efficient and sustainablecrop production. The state-of-the-art in remote sensing methodologies for crop monitoring as well as some of practicalapplications in regional crop production were reported by specialists from various public and private sectors. The applicationneeds, technological potential, and collaboration frameworks were discussed. The importance of interdisciplinary andinter-sector collaborations was emphasized.
International Symposium on Soil Carbon Modeling in Agriculturaland Forest Ecosystems: “Current status and future challenges”

Tsukuba

12-13 Nov 13

51

This symposium aimed to share current status of research on soil carbon modelling and to discuss future direction ofthis issue, by inviting four foreign speakers. It was supported by the Research Program of the Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry and Fisheries, “Evaluation, Adaptation and Mitigation of Global Warming in Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries:
Research and Development”, and jointly hosted by Forestry Forest Products Research Institute and National Institute forAgro-Environmental Sciences.
NIAES 30th Anniversary symposium: “Agriculture and theEnvironment in the 21st Century”

Tokyo

13 Dec 13

205

In commemoration of NIAES 30th Anniversary, NIAES held an agro-environmental symposium. Researchers from NIAES
introduced the research activities, and the expert persons done a lecture about the agriculture environment in the monsoon
Asia. By the panel discussion, Researchers argued about an agro-environmental study of the 21st century with the expert
person of various quarters.
The Ecosystem Informatics Workshop II (NIAES 30th Anniversary):“Strategic Use of Remote Sensing for the Intelligence of Food
Security.”Tokyo

14 Feb 14

107

The advanced use of satellite remote sensing is vital for the near real-time assessment of crop productivity at sufficientspatial resolutions towards food security. In addition to the state-of-the-art in remote sensing methodologies in optical,
thermal and microwave domains, some practical case studies for regional assessment of crop production were presented.
The practical information-needs and possible collaboration schemes towards the national food security, crop insurance andsolution businesses were discussed.

36

Title

Place

Date

Participants

The 171st Tsukuba Bioscience Hall Workshop: “Observation
Technique of Air Temperature and Its Application in Field Trials”

Tsukuba

12-14 Jun 13

15

SeminarTo build capacity of agronomists to fight against the impact of global warming on agricultural production, researchers
from NIAES gave lectures to them on theoretical basis and practical techniques for observation and use of air temperature.
Each participant made his/her own force-ventilated radiation shield "NIAES-09S" which was developed by NIAES. By
comparing the measured values of air temperature taken by the shields they had just made and set in various conditions inthe same field, they realized the importance of methodology to obtain air temperature which correctly represents the realcondition of the field.
The 174th Tsukuba Bioscience Hall Workshop: “PCR-DGGE analysis
of soil microbial community”

Tsukuba

29-30 Aug 13

18

NIAES developed the manual of PCR-DGGE analysis using soil DNA, as a useful evaluation technique of soil microbialcommunity, which is deeply involved in crop production and agricultural environment. Here, This workshop introduced
this technique and gave a training class of the short term.
NIAES Open Seminar “Promoting Wildlife-friendly Agriculture”

Tokyo

5 Nov 13111

Research on the relationships between agricultural activities and biodiversity in farmlands was presented, and probability
to achieve the synergistic interaction between agricultural production and biodiversity conservation was discussed.
The 176th Tsukuba Bioscience Hall Workshop: “MolecularPhylogenetics — Theory and Practice”

Tsukuba

6-8 Nov 13

18

Three-day hands-on workshop on the theory of molecular phylogenetics and its applications with PC exercise of computing
phylogenetic trees based on DNA and amino acid sequences held in the computer room in AFFRIT. Thirty students
selected all over Japan participated in this workshop featuring several leading scientists in molecular phylogenetics andevolution as teachers.
NIAES Open Seminar in Niigata, “Reducing global environmentalload - Challenge of agriculture –“Niigata

18 Nov 13263

The seminar was organized under close collaboration with Niigata Prefecture. The objective of this seminar was tointroduce various research subjects NIAES challenged to citizens in Niigata. The presentation consisted of utilization ofmesh agro-climate data for predicting rice growth and its management, reducing technology of GHG (methane) in paddy
field, organic farming and biodiversity in rice paddy. Recent research topics were also introduced in the poster session.
The 6th NIAES science café: “Let’s understand the relationshipbetween agriculture and alien species with songs.”

Tsukuba

2 Mar 14

29

Members of the Biodiversity Division of NIAES performed four original songs to describe the current situation of alien
species expanded in Japan. After each performance, they had a lecture to explain the meaning of the lyric from the pointof view of positive and negative effects of alien species on the agriculture in Japan. They also enjoyed the game to findout the alien species hidden in the ingredients of sukiyaki with the participants so that they understood the closeness of the
problem to daily life.
NIAES 30th Anniversary Open Seminar: “Microbial diversity andfunctions related to agriculture revealed by nucleic acids”

Tokyo

7 Mar 14

164

The nucleic acids extracted directly from agricultural soil are very useful for understand the diversity and the function of
the microbe related to agriculture. In this seminar, research achievements of NIAES in this field and excellent studies using
nucleic acids extracted from environments were introduced.

Research Meeting
The 13th Seminar on Organic Chemical Studies: “Reduction
techniques of POPs insecticides pollution in vegetables”

Tsukuba

30 Oct 14

105

Persistent organic pollutants (POPs) remain in Japanese farming soils, more than 40 years after their use as insecticides
was prohibited. In recent years, residues of POPs in cucurbit fruits have become a problem. In this seminar, the study aboutsome reduction techniques of POPs pollution in vegetables were presented. And the future prospects and problems werediscussed.

37

Research Overview in FY2013
Title

Place

Date

Participants

The 27th workshop on Climete and Agro-Envionment: “International
Research Networks and Projects in Agricultural Meteorology and
Their Collaborations”

Tsukuba

2 Dec 1345

After keynote lectures by Prof. Takehisa Oikawa (Professor Emeritus, The University of Tsukuba) and Prof. Joon Kim(Seoul National University, Korea), seven experts talked about objectives and activities in international networks andprojects they have been leading or participating, and discussed collaborations between those networks and projects.
MARCO-AgMIP workshop: “Evaluation and improvements of rice
growth and yield models”

Tsukuba

2-5 Dec 13

22

This workshop was held a s an annual meeting for the rice growth model team of the Agricultural model inter-comparison
and improvement project (AgMIP) to better understand the performance of existing rice growth models under elevated CO2
conditions based on datasets obtained in the free-air CO_2 enrichment facilities in Japan and China. We also discussed
critical growth processes that need to be improved for better prediction of rice yields under climate change.
The 31st Seminar on Soil and Water (NIAES 30th Anniversary):“Uptake of cadmium and arsenic of agricultural crops and risk
management measures.”

Tsukuba

26 Feb 14

118

We focused on remediation technologies of cadmium-contaminated areas, development of low cadmium rice cultivar“Koshihikari kan-1”, imaging technologies of cadmium and arsenic in plants and mitigation technologies of arsenic in rice.
Future directions for integrating these studies toward achieving simultaneous mitigation technologies for cadmium andarsenic in rice were discussed.
The 4th Agro-environmental Inventory Seminar (NIAES 30th
Anniversary): “Construction of inventory (database) for efficient risk
assessment of chemicals including pesticides”

Tsukuba

27 Feb 14

90

First, the current status of databases on chemical health risks was presented. Chemical Substances Control Law (CSCL)
in Japan and related activities were introduced. Third, ecological risk associated with CSCL was presented. Finally, two
researchers of our institute introduced the status of open-database concerning geographic information and its use for
exposure assessment, and the construction of chemical inventory and its use for ecological risk assessment, respectively.

38