Japan’s New Center of Excellence on Climate-Smart Agriculture

The Asian Productivity Organization (APO) has designated Japan’s National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) as its new Center of Excellence on Climate-smart Agriculture (COE on CSA). The COE on CSA will focus on deploying climate change mitigation and adaptation technologies to enhance agricultural productivity, increase food production, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The COE will initially focus on low-carbon rice, wheat, and soybean production, stapled foods in Asia-Pacific.

The COE on CSA will share technical knowledge and methods to reduce methane emissions from paddy fields, adopt agricultural weather data systems, develop web-based soil carbon sequestration visualization tools, apply biochar, and implement water management practices in rice cultivation and treatment of livestock waste. Starting in April 2023, the COE on CSA will conduct a need and readiness assessment of APO members to implement climate-change mitigation and adaptation technologies. Additionally, the COE will organize international conferences on CSA and other focus areas, pilot projects to apply developed technologies and provide training and workshops for local customization.