Advancement of Tropical Crop Genetic Resources Utilization through the Development of Database, Technologies and Research Networking

JIRCAS maintains diverse genetic resources of sugarcane, indica rice, tropical fruit trees, and Urochloa (tropical grass) at the Tropical Agriculture Research Front (TARF) in Ishigaki Island, Okinawa Prefecture. These tropical crops play an important role as sources of food, energy (biofuel), calories, nutrients, cash crops, and fodder in production areas. Amid concerns about global climate change, the sustainable and stable production of these crops is an urgent issue. The introduction of tropical crops and their cultivation and dissemination technologies is expected to be one of the measures to combat global warming in Japan, and will contribute to the expansion of production areas and diversification of food and nutrient sources. TARF has climatic and geographical conditions similar to those of the experimental fields used in JIRCAS’s overseas research. The research environment is suitable for conducting detailed basic experiments, along with demonstration research in tropical crop growing environments, which can contribute to close cooperative partnerships with developing regions and to agriculture in the Southwest (Nansei) Islands of Japan. The ongoing JIRCAS project “Advancement of tropical crop genetic resources utilization through the development of database, technologies and research networking” (Tropical crop genetic resources project) based at TARF aims to create a shared resource of information, technology, and materials, and contribute to the promotion of sustainable production under unstable environmental conditions, as well as their production and utilization in Japan. This will be achieved through research networking on tropical crop genetic resources to address issues with overseas and domestic organizations, as well as through the development of varieties and technologies that take advantage of this diversity. In this project, we have developed strategic genetic resource information, breeding technologies, varieties and materials, and cultivation and dissemination technologies, taking advantage of the diverse and abundant genetic resources maintained at TARF and the geographical location of the facility, based on international and domestic issues and needs that must be addressed. Through the sharing of information, materials, and technologies, we aim to strengthen collaborations with domestic and overseas research institutions for the advancement of tropical crop genetic resource utilization.