Horticultural engineering toward efficient and sustainable plant production
Article ID: D-25-00101
Details
Article ID: D-25-00101
The Japanese horticultural industry faces urgent and significant social issues, like most other agricultural sectors. For instance, the CO2 emission by fossil fuel combustion accounts for 36% (18.55 million tons) of the total greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries in Japan (50.84 million tons, CO2 equivalent) (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, 2024). Greenhouse heating is considered a primary source of fuel-derived CO2 emissions (Ishii, 2023), and immediate attention is demanded. Developing effective adaptation measures to climate change is also essential for both greenhouse and open-field horticultural production. On the other hand, there have been remarkable advancements in horticulture-related technology in recent years. These include data-driven environmental control and crop management based on information from various sensors and measurement devices, as well as advanced modeling and prediction of plant responses using data science and machine learning. Furthermore, commercializing plant factories with artificial lighting or indoor vertical farms is now prevalent not only in East Asia, including Japan, but also in North America, Europe, and other areas worldwide. Horticultural engineering, focusing on understanding and controlling the plant–environment interrelationship, must play a critical role in addressing these pressing challenges and circumstances.
The Society of Agricultural Meteorology of Japan (SAMJ) has an abundant research history in greenhouse horticulture and horticultural engineering. The Greenhouse Horticulture Research Group started its activity in 1973 and worked until 1977 to publish its final report on the design criteria for environmental control in greenhouse horticulture as a special issue of this journal, Journal of Agricultural Meteorology (Sase, 2010). Subsequently, the Greenhouse Horticulture Research Division was established in 1980 and was active until 2003. During this nearly quarter century, the research division organized various workshops and international symposia (Okada and Hayashi, 1993) and summarized an online book on greenhouse horticulture (Sase, 2010). In 2006, the Horticultural Engineering Research Division was established as the succeeding research division and has been active to date. It has planned and held an organized oral session about a timely, relevant topic in almost every annual meeting of SAMJ, providing meaningful opportunities for discussion and collaboration with researchers. The SAMJ’s commitment to advancing horticultural engineering is evident in these initiatives.
In 2013, the Horticultural Engineering Research Division edited a special issue comprising five full papers in the Journal of Agricultural Meteorology (Vol. 69, No. 2). Here, I am thrilled to launch “Horticultural engineering toward efficient and sustainable plant production” as the second paper collection proposed by the research division. This collection, which will include the latest topics on engineering aspects of greenhouse and open-field horticulture and plant production with artificial lighting, has the potential to spark fruitful discussions and attract more interest in this research area. I believe that the knowledge and insights shared in this special collection will significantly contribute to the further development of horticultural engineering in the future.
I am grateful to all the authors, editors (Drs. Shoko Hikosaka, Daisuke Yasutake, and Tomohiro Jishi), reviewers, and the Journal of Agricultural Meteorology editorial board for their contributions and support. This special collection is part of the program “Improvement of the quality and enhancement of international dissemination and sustainable editing management of the Journal of Agricultural Meteorology,” financially supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP23HP2004.
