Reconstruction of Agriculture: 10 years after the Great East Japan Earthquake | India Education, India Education News, Education News

Tohoku University’s College of Agriculture recently hosted a seminar to provide assessments and updates on reconstruction projects in rural areas affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

The lectures highlighted the work of the Tohoku Agricultural Sciences Center for Reconstruction (TASCR), which was established in 2014 to develop interdisciplinary research on large-scale natural disasters and environmental degradation. It has also run educational programs for agricultural reconstruction and has received 460 “Meisters” certification, many of whom are currently working or volunteering in regional projects.

One such project is the cultivation of clean tropical fruits and organic tomatoes in Katsuura Village in Fukushima, after the accident at the Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant led to concerns about the safety of local products. Funded by the Fukushima Prefectural Government, TASCR and Associate Professor Kazuhisa Kato started the Katsurao Plant in 2018.

The facility has three greenhouses, in which several types of organic tomatoes and 30 mango trees are grown. Each greenhouse is equipped with technology that can control temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide concentration. Crops are monitored by researchers and staff through multiple cameras, an automatic data storage system, and regular site visits.

“When the funding runs out in 2021, this Katsurao plant plant will move into a joint research project with one of the commercial companies we work with, to try to establish new agricultural businesses in the Hammadori area,” said Kato. “Our goal is to develop a method for uniformly harvesting bigger, sweeter products that people want to eat.”

In his lecture, Professor Minoru Ikeda described how the university’s Onagawa Maritime Center had to be rebuilt after the 2011 tsunami that completely destroyed the laboratories there.

“We have likely lost hundreds of millions of yen from pure research,” he said. But even worse, there were some samples and data that will never be available again. This is now lost forever. “

In the decade following the disaster, the center has been monitoring the restoration of coastal ecosystems and conducting research on the state of genetic diversity in coastal marine organisms.

“I think one of the important consequences of the disaster in 2011 is that it changed the drive for research,” Ikeda said. “The move to use science to rebuild the region has led many researchers to choose practical or essential research topics, rather than satisfying academic curiosity.”

Other speakers at the symposium included: Professor Hioyasu Kitashiba, who spoke of an attempt to reclaim farmland in the tsunami-affected areas using salt-tolerant cruciferous plants. Associate Professor Yoshihisa Soyama, who has been studying the genetic diversity of tree species across Japan using the latest analyzes; And Assistant Professor Chinatsu Yonezawa, who has been monitoring large areas of devastation using aerial surveillance techniques, to assess the impact of reconstruction efforts on ecosystems.

Local stakeholders Takafumi Kawaguchi of Higashimatsushima City and Kazunori Iwaya of Katsuura Village in Fukushima have also shared insights into recovery efforts in their areas at the grassroots level.

“I think in general, most of us who work on TASCR projects have met our initial goals, but of course there is always more work to be done,” said Shinichiro Ogura, TASCR Deputy Director and Professor at the Graduate School of Agriculture. “For example, many challenges arose that we did not anticipate when we first started, such as slowing down the land due to population aging in many rural villages. This is definitely something that we need to address in the future.”

A potential solution can be found in the innovative use of technology, as described by Professor Cookie Huma in his lecture. He talked about assessing crop yields using drones over the coastal areas of Sendai. Like the devices in the greenhouses of the Katsurao plant, he said, new technology and artificial intelligence can be used to provide high-precision monitoring and environmental control in rural projects.

Traditional farming methods may not be practical for elderly farmers in Japan. With IT, some activities can be less work-intensive, and some can even be done remotely. This may help attract more young people to become farmers, especially in disaster-affected areas. “

The symposium attracted more than 70 participants, many of them from disaster-affected communities. There was a live discussion session after the lectures, where the participants had an opportunity to interact with the researchers and ask questions about current and future projects.

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