(Sep.19,1996, No.of participants:168)
The annual symposium was focused on the evaluation of environmental effects on food production in local and global scales and prediction of them in the 21st century. A key note speech was given by Prof. K. Fukuoka (Rissho Univ.) entitled Food security and agro-environment in the 21st century." Six reports were presented as follows: (1) Perspectives of global food production under global warming and agro-environmental research; (2) Global warming and unusual weather; (3) Evaluation and prediction of green house gas budgets in agriculture; (4) Prediction of changes in crop production areas under global warming; (5) Prediction of crop growth under global warming and our research, and (6) Remote sensing and global warming.
(Sep.25-26,1996, No.of participants:132)
Recently, new type pesticides have been developed and used to control agricultural pests such as phyto- pathogenic fungi, insects and weeds. On the other hand, various kinds of agricultural pests have developed resistance to pesticides and it is difficult to control them. Thus, it is important to develop resistance management techniques for retarding the development of resistance and using pesticides successively. The following six reports were presented and discussed: (1) The latest trends in the development of fungicides and problems in the resistance to phytopathogenic fungi; (2) Present status of fungicide resistance and subjects in the future; (3) The latest trends in the development of insecticides and problems in their use; (4) Present status of insecticide resistance and resistance management in insect pests; (5) Studies on mechanisms of insecticide resistance and their prospects; (6) Studies on the interaction between pesticides and natural enemies.
(Feb.25,1997, No. of participants:10)
Atmospheric methyl bromide is estimated to be the main source of stratospheric bromine, which destroys the ozone layer. Methyl bromide is used extensively for soil fumigation. It is well recognized that a considerable amount of methyl bromide used in fumigation is emitted to the atmosphere. However, details on the emission have not been estimated. Results of field experiments carried out to obtain more accurate estimates of cumulative methyl bromide losses to the atmosphere were presented and discussed. Moreover, the plan for field experiments in the next year was confirmed.
(Feb.25-29, 1997, No. of participants:120)
Invasion of exotic insect pests and weeds has accelerated in recent years with increasing international commercial activities, and the use of exotic beneficial organisms is also expanding. They pose important and urgent problems not only in the economic but also in the ecological sense. To elucidate the present situation of the problem, 24 presentations from Japan, USA, UK and Australia were made in the workshop under the categories of (1) the attributes, colonization, establishment and spread of invaders, (2) the impact of invaders on the ecosystem and (3) the evaluation and management of the introduced or invasive organism.
Discussions were made on the possibilities to carry out international cooperative studies.
(Mar.4, 1997, No. of participants:50)
The international workshop is held annually during the third phase (1996-98) of a carbon cycling project sponsored by the Environment Agency of Japan. Some models were introduced by Prof. D. Ojima and Prof. K. Paustian from Colorado States University/NREL, U.S.A., Dr. T. Willison and Dr. P. Smith from IACR- Rothamsted, U.K. and Japanese participants. Some soil processes of carbon cycling were discussed according to results from simulations using data on soil conditions in Japan by the models. This workshop has identified important opportunities for cooperation in studying these topics.
(Mar. 9, 1997, No. of participants;208)
Both aquatic and terrestrial organic matter affect substantially the trihalomethane formation potential of our drinking water, and the movement and chemical forms of heavy metals in agricultural ecosystems. The quantitative annual balance of carbon in rice field ecosystems and the long term carbon balance in upland field ecosystems were presented. New analytical methods and up-to-the-minute chemical structure of humic matter of aquatic and terrestrial organic matter were also presented.
The workshop covered the following topics where the first two were keynote addresses, including four invited speakers from the outside of NIAES: (1) Nature and dynamics of aquatic organic matter and effects on the environment; (2) Separation, characterization and identification of aquatic and terrestrial humic materials; (3) Trihalomethane formation potential of agricultural aquatic organic matter; (4) Assessment of trihalomethane formation potential of livestock wastes and development of technologies for its reduction; (5) Effects of organic matter on the dynamics of heavy metals in the soil and water interface; (6) Dynamics and quantitative balance of organic matter in paddy field ecosystems - a comparison to upland field ecosystems; (7) Dynamics of soil organic matter in upland fields continuously applied with organic materials - an example of vegetable fields on re-yellow soil.
(Mar.11, 1997, No. of participants:136)
Abnormal weather is prevailing every year and changes in the global environment have raised concerns in recent years. The regional and time variations in rice yield have become larger than usual. The social and economic conditions are also unstable in recent years. The supply and demand for rice are balanced in an unpredictable world situation.
We vigorously discussed various rice production environments, in particular the relation between climate change and rice production in Asian countries.
The presentations were as follows:
(1) Rice as a food in Asia by Prof. T. Ichikawa, Nagano Pref.;
(2) Rice in Asia from the point view of ecology by Prof. T. Sueta, Nagoya Univ.;
(3) Characteristics of rice production using a net primary production model by Dr. H. Toritani, NIAES;
(4) Variation in monsoon and global linkage by Prof. T. Yasunari, Tsukuba Univ. ;
(5) Models and reality of rice growth by Dr. K. Kobayashi, NIAES;
(6) Prediction of food production in Asia by Dr. H. Kawashima,NIAES.
(Mar. 24, 1997, No. of participants:75)
Development and possible marketing of products of transgenic crops have raised public concern for safety issues in their use as foods. The workshop was held to review recent achievements in the safety assessment of transgenic crops and to accelerate the research. The program included presentations and discussions on“The safety assessment for transgenic crops in their use as foods,” “Marketing of transgenic crops as foods,” and “Consumer opinion for and public acceptance of recombinant DNA technology”.