Food Research for Achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development were adopted by world leaders in 2015 at an historic UN Summit, and officially came into force in 2016 1). SDGs are consisting of 17 goals and we are supposed to achieve each goal and target by 2030. The 17 goals include “No Poverty”, “Zero Hunger”, “Good Health and Well-being”, “Clean Water and Sanitation”, “Affordable and Clean Energy”, “Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure”, “Responsible Consumption and Production”, “Climate Action”, “Life below Water”, “Life on Land” and so on, which are directly or indirectly related with food industry. Therefore, we are encouraged to further promote research subjects which will contribute to achievement of SDGs. Recently, meat analogues which are produced from plant-based resources such as soy bean are attracting a great deal of attention, especially in European countries and the US. Once the plant-based resources are converted into meat, the nutritional value is reduced by a factor of 5 to 10. Therefore, direct utilization of plant-based resources is supposed to be able to support more population than utilization of meat. Production of meat analogue from plant- based resources might be an effective measure to achieve SDGs. In addition, elucidation of superior functionalities of plant-based resources such as soybean might be another effective measure to contribute to achievement of SDGs. Japanese people have been utilizing soybean as food, not as feed, for more than 2,000 years. During this long period, Japanese people have developed excellent food culture which can prepare meals with high nutritional values and attractive taste by using plant-based resources such as soybean. Now, some researchers some researchers in Japan are trying to elucidate health-promoting benefit of soybean. Results of
these research works will lead to more efficient utilization of plant-based resources and contribute to achievement of SDGs. In this paper, research works for development of innovative processes which are conducted in Japan, and will contribute to achievement of SDGs, will be introduced.
https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/

Keywords: SDGs, meat analogues, plant-based resources, functionality

Smart Agriculture Challenges to Reduce Environmental Footprints: Towards Smart and Precision Agriculture

Smart Farming is the new term in the agriculture sector, aiming to transform the traditional techniques into innovative solutions based on Information Communication Technologies (ICT). It has a great potential to increase food production and solve the food shortage crisis worldwide. Technologies as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Unmanned (Autonomous) Ground Vehicles (UGVs), Image Processing, Machine Learning, Big Data analysis, Cloud Computing, blockchain, and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are expected to bring significant improvement in this area. Smart agriculture (SA) incorporates smart management in many cases based on IoT (Internet of Things) based advanced technologies and solutions to improve operational efficiency, maximise yield, and minimise wastage through real-time field data collection, data analysis, and deployment of control mechanisms. Diverse IoT-based applications such as variable rate technology, precision farming, smart irrigation, innovative greenhouse, field monitoring and disease prediction can enhance agricultural processes. IoT can address agriculture-based issues and increase the quality and quantity of agriculture. Smart agriculture’s total addressable market has grown from USD 13.7 billion (10⁹) in 2015 to 26.8 billion by 2020, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.3% and robust escalating growth is expected to come. However, it is not only increasing investment. Behind the need for SA are (i) Emphasis on Enhancing Efficiency, (ii) Need for Water Conservation, (iii) Preventing Climate Change, (iv) fundamentally reducing the waste and optimising the waste treatment chains towards the Circular Economy. All of them should be evaluated and quantified, and environmental footprints are offering beneficial environmental tools. The future progress should consider, besides the others: (a) Autonomous Farming, (b) Remote monitoring systems for autonomous farming, (c) Equipment enhancement with robots penetration, implementation of drones and satellites, (d) Extensions of Precision Farming, and (e) Integration of renewable energy – e.g. Agrivoltaics. The plenary talk attempts to sum up the opportunities and requirements, as well as consequences assessing potential benefits, requirements and challenges. The main purpose is to initiate the discussion of researchers from various fields as agriculture, ecology, electrical, mechanical and chemical engineering, as well as IT, aeronautics and space experts. 

Biostimulants and the next Green Renaissance?

Global food production needs a comprehensive overhaul in terms of sustainability, with better approaches to producing safe and healthy food, while leaving little footprint. In line with UN SDG goals, a reduction in chemical fertilizer and pesticide use is required, in order to stop the serious pollution, dwindling finite resources (e.g. phosphorus) and loss of biodiversity. Intimately linked to plants and soils, insects and microorganisms are critically important to both natural ecosystems and agroecosystems. The reliability of cultivation is also disrupted by increasing extreme weather, attributed in part to climate change. Hence, alternatives to strengthen our plants need to be explored urgently that harness nature’s own biological components. From a sustainability perspective, organic farming offers an eco-friendly cultivation system that minimizes agrochemicals and producing food with little or no environmental footprint. However, organic agriculture’s biggest drawback is the generally lower and variable yield in contrast to conventional farming. Compatible with organic farming, the selective use of biostimulants can close the apparent yield gap between organic and conventional cultivation systems. Biostimulants are defined as natural microorganisms (bacteria, fungi) or biologically active substances that are able to improve plant growth and yield through several processes. Biostimulants are derived from a range of natural resources including organic materials (composts, seaweeds, coconut water), manures (earthworms, poultry, fish, insects) and extracts derived from microbes, plant, insect or animal origin. The integration of biostimulants with other compatible substrates into any cultivation represents added environmental and public health benefits of providing a waste management solution (circular bioeconomy). The current trend is indicative that a mixture of biostimulants is generally delivering better growth, yield and quality rather than applying biostimulant individually. When used correctly, biostimulants are known to help plants cope with stressful situations like drought, salinity, extreme temperatures and even certain diseases. More research is needed to understand the different biostimulants, key components, and also to adjust the formulations to improve their reliability in the field. With greater mechanistic clarity, designing purposeful combinations of biostimulants offer a promising, innovative and sustainable strategy to supplement and replace agrochemicals in the near future.

Various methods in delaying stress induced-senescence in crop plants

Water deficit and elevated CO₂ condition is threatening the future crop productivity. Leaf yellowing and cellular damages are the most severe stress-induced symptoms of various plant species. Various methods have been used to delay the stress-induced senescence. Three interesting strategies will be discussed in this presentation. First, delaying chloroplast degradation: chloroplast vesiculation (CV) gene was silenced by RNA interference to minimize the expression of this gene under stress condition. CV-silencing promoted water deficit tolerance and reduced dismantling chloroplast ultrastructure under water deficit and elevated CO₂. CV-silenced rice also possesses the higher nitrogen assimilation under, together with higher nitrate reductase activity. Second, using fertilizer management: elevated level of nitrogen (N) in the fertilizer acted as the nitric oxide (NO) accumulation inducer. Elevated N enhanced antioxidant defense mechanism and decrease reactive oxygen species accumulation via the NO-associated mechanisms, as well as the maintenance of chlorophyll content and net photosynthetic rate. Third, using plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB): Bradyrhizobium sp. strain SUTN9-2 contained ACC deaminase which be able to modulate stress-induced ethylene production in plants. Moreover, the enhanced strains of SUTN9-2 were also increase the ability of stress alleviation.  These strategies can be selectively used in the appropriate area and situation for sustainable agriculture in the future.

Keywords: Drought, Chloroplast, Nitric oxide, Plant growth promoting bacteria, Rice

The Current Situation of biomass utilization for agriculture in Japan

Japanese energy and agricultural policies are changing toward carbon net zero society and green agriculture, meaning that proper cycles of carbon, nitrogen and phosphors are required. I’ll present the current situation of biomass utilization in the field of agriculture in Japan: the objective biomasses are food waste, cow manure, and sewage sludge: the objective technologies are composting and anaerobic digestion. New innovative utilization idea of nitrogen in the fermentation residue will be discussed in my lecture.