Introduction
The United Nations Millennium Development goals are to reduce hunger and poverty. This was the main reason for the UN declaration of the International Year of Rice in 2004. Rice is the source of more than 500 calories per person per day for over 3 billion people (FAOSTAT). By 2010...
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2023.06.13
688
ABSTRACT
In response to increasing climate risks and adhering to international trends to achieve carbon emission reduction targets by 2030 and a net-zero emission goal by 2050, Taiwan adopted the new “Climate Responsive Act” on January 10, 2023. The “Climate Responsive Act” is a comprehensive...
2013.11.19
3,403
Tsuneo Kuwagata, Mayumi Yoshimoto, Yasushi Ishigooka, Toshihiro Hasegawa, and Motoki Nishimori
National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
E-mail: kuwa@affrc.go.jp
Rice productivity and quality in Japan is being impacted by global warming and climate...
In early December, Masanao Saito, 83, a farmer in the Takase district of the inland town of Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture, was talking to his mikan tangerine trees full of fruit. “Thank you for bearing fruit again this year.”
Using special scissors, Saito carefully plucked the "Okitsu Wase" tangerines, now in their third year of production. The fruit, glistening in the sunlight, stood out against the farmland in early winter, which was beginning to lose its color.
On a hill near Saito’s tangerine farm, a field of apple trees spreads out, with the familiar bright red fruits waiting to be harvested.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the average annual temperatures suitable for growing tangerines are between 15 and 18 degrees Celsius and those for apples are between 6 oC and 14 oC.
The Meteorological Agency’s data shows that the average temperature in Watari, a town neighboring Yamamoto, was 14.4 oC in 2023. This was 1.6 oC higher than the previous year and the highest since the 1970s, when records began.
The area around Yamamoto and Watari, in southern part of Miyagi Prefecture, is known as the "Shonan of Tohoku" for its relatively warm climate, akin to the Shonan seaside area in Kanagawa Prefecture.
However, the unusual sight of tangerines, which are vulnerable to the cold, coexisting with apples, which are vulnerable to heat, appears to be a symbol of rapid global warming.
Read more here.