Sustainable development in harmony with the environment has been one of the most important concepts since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held at Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
Japanese agriculture has strong concerns about this problem. Japan achieved high economic growth from the beginning of the 1960s. Mining and manufacturing industries at first grew rapidly and caused serious environmental pollution. At that time agriculture was a victim of the pollution of soil, water and air caused by industries. Strict environmental regulations for industries reduced the progress of pollution and improved the environmental conditions up to around 1970. Meanwhile,the intensificatio and mechanization of agriculture steadily proceeded. Increased inputs of chemical fertilizers and pesticides gradually became one of the causes of the environmental pollution in agricultural regions,especially for vegetable production which greatly increased after the high economy growth,in contrast to wheat,barley,corn and soybeans that shifted to imports.
Animal production,using imported feeds,also increased after the high growth of the economy and produced a large amount of waste which could not be recycled for forage production. Animal waste also became one of the causes environmental pollution. The decrease of agricultural land and forests by conversion to urban uses as well as intensive agricultural practices impacted the traditional landscape and biodiversity of rural areas.
Trade liberalization has had strong impacts on Japanese agriculture.One such impact is the increasing abandonment of arable fields which became obvious from the 1980s. It caused anxieties over the reduction of land conservation functions which is maintained by agricultural practice. For example, paddy fields with flat planes surrounded by ridges can temporarily store a large amount of water, thus preventing flooding downstream. Paddy fields also almost completely prevent soil erosion.Because Japan has heavy annual rainfall of about 1,800 mm on average, water control is very important. The abandonment of paddy fields reduces the flood- and soil erosion-prevention functions.
In the 1980s the environmental changes on the global scale became a matter of concern all over the world. Such problems as global warming, acid rain, the destruction of the ozone layer,desertification of soils have close relations with agriculture.
In this background, the National Institute of Agro-Environmental Sciences (NIAES) was established in 1983 by the reorganization of the National Institute of Agricultural Science which covered all the scientific fields of agriculture. NIAES has been working exclusively on environmental issues concerned with agriculture, that is, on developing of technologies for sustainable agriculture in harmony with the environment.
Today, we are emphasizing research on developing technologies for:
1) the conservation of physical and biological resources for agriculture and the reduction of negative impacts on the environment from agriculture.
2) the maintenance and strengthening of land/environment conservation functions of agricultural lands.
3) the mitigation of global environmental change and its impact on agriculture.
4) the integrated management of agricultural ecosystems in a sustainable manner.
Concerns for sustainable agriculture in harmony with the environment is increasing internally and internationally. This annual report has been published from last year. We hope this publication will stimulate discussion and collaboration between scientists and institutes world wide which are concerned about agro-environmental issues.
Michinori Nishio
Director General