Creating rice that enables sustainable agriculture through the resilience of wild rice
Since the development of the Haber-Bosch process for the chemical synthesis of nitrogen, humans have dramatically increased food production through the use of chemical fertilizers. The lives of more than 8 billion people are sustained by chemical fertilizers. On the other hand, modern agriculture, which uses large amounts of chemical fertilizers, has significantly altered the balance of natural material cycles, causing groundwater pollution, eutrophication of marine areas, global warming, and other environmental problems that we are currently facing. We cannot continue current agricultural practices that disregard the global environment. We humans must achieve a sustainable food production system.
Rice, the staple food of Asia, is a plant called Oryza sativa, domesticated by ancient humans around 10,000 years ago. However, wild ancestors and undomesticated relatives of Oryza sativa still exist in nature. These plants are called wild rice and live in harsh natural environments. Wild rice possesses a“robustness”that cultivated rice lacks. We are conducting research to transfer the “robustness” of wild rice to cultivated rice using a technique called multi-omics analysis. So far, we have developed rice that grows well even with little fertilizer and rice that is resistant to temperature and light stress. There are many things necessary for next-generation agriculture. I want to contribute to the future of farming by improving rice.
Educational approach
Promoting next-generation agriculture through field informatics
I am responsible for Field Informatics, one of the courses offered by the Agricultural Bioinformatics Research Unit. Field Informatics provides hands-on explanations of the theories and technologies aimed at improving efficiency and optimization in breeding and production, utilizing big data generated and collected from entire fields using various observation devices, such as drones and environmental sensors, which have advanced rapidly in recent years, as well as omics information (genome, transcriptome, metabolome, ionome, microbiome, etc.) obtained from crops grown in the field, which has been increasing due to the advancement of analytical instruments.
The digitization of agriculture, as seen in smart farming, is an inevitable outcome of the information age. However, we are currently in a transitional phase, moving from traditional agriculture based on“intuition”and“experience”to next-generation agriculture driven by“AI” and“data”. The Agricultural Bioinformatics Research Unit promotes the advancement of agricultural research through data science education in the field of agriculture, and the development of human resources who will drive the emerging field of next-generation agriculture.
Vision for industry-academia collaboration
Achieving high-yield rice production without the use of chemical fertilizers
Given the global interest in healthy diets, sustainable production, and waste-free consumption, along with the expansion of ESG investment markets and the development of environmental and health strategies in Europe and the United States, it has become urgent for Japan's food, agriculture, forestry, and fisheries sectors to respond to these global trends. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has formulated the“Green Food System Strategy” with the aim of achieving innovation that will improve the productivity and sustainability of food, agriculture, forestry, and fisheries by 2050. Among the items related to crop production, the mid-term targets for 2030 include a 30% reduction in chemical fertilizers made from imported raw materials and fossil fuels, and an increase in the proportion of organic farming to 25% of total cultivated land.
The market size of rice-related businesses, including variety development, production, processing, distribution, and sales (export and local production), was JPY 37.9 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow significantly to JPY 73.3 billion in 2025. While demand for rice production is increasing, production with reduced use of chemical fertilizers has not yet been realized. We are working to improve Koshihikari, the most widely produced rice variety in Japan, to develop high-yielding rice that require minimal use of chemical fertilizers. We are currently conducting demonstration experiments on rice production without chemical fertilizers, using the rice varieties we developed, in collaboration with agricultural research centers and local farmers.
