This study aimed to improve a procedure to determine an appropriate time scale and lag time to predict coffee yield at the local scale. The Vegetation Health Index (VHI), Effective Drought Index, Standardised Precipitation Index, Standardised Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), and soil moisture from 2000 to 2022 in Dak Lak, Vietnam, were selected for the analysis. The yield differences between drought and wet phases and the correlation coefficients between the indices and yield were analysed to determine potential predictors for the model. Then, a stepwise multiple linear regression model with the leave-one-out cross-validation was performed to select appropriate predictors with their time scales and lag times. The results showed that VHI with a lag time from seven to nine months before harvest (VHI_7-9) and SPEI at a time scale of five months with a lag time of ten months before harvest (SPEI5₁₀) had essential contributions in predicting coffee yield. Meanwhile, soil moisture had a poor contribution. Coffee yield could be predicted from three to nine months before harvest based on meteorological drought indices, VHI, and soil moisture. With a reasonably long prediction time and relatively high accuracy, the proposed prediction procedures may be applied to mitigate climate change’s impacts, aiming for sustainable development.

Understanding the impacts on urban food supply from extreme climate events is a first step towards building climate-resilient agri-food systems. Here, we report on vegetable supply disruptions in the Tokyo metropolitan area due to the summer heatwaves of 2023 and 2024, using the governmental survey on wholesale market arrival volumes and prices. Fifteen vegetables (broccoli, cabbage, carrot, Chinese cabbage, cucumber, eggplant, Japanese radish, lettuce, onions, potatoes, spinach, sweet pepper, taro, tomato and Welsh onion) were considered. Compared to the 2010-2022 average, the arrival volume in the September-October period was on the bottom third level or severer for carrot (-27.1%) and Japanese radish (-22.3%) in 2023, and for tomato in both 2023 (-19.9%) and 2024 (-22.9%), with their price increases of 46.0-81.9%. The negative impact of high temperatures in August or September on arrival volumes in the following month was detected for these vegetables in at least one main producing prefecture. However, in 2024, the price increases were more widespread, affecting 14 vegetables. As there were no appreciable decreases in arrival volumes, it is unlikely that climatic factors were the primary cause of the price increases in 2024. These results highlight the need for domestic vegetable production to be more heat tolerant, given its influence on downstream of agri-food systems, such as urban consumers.

Measurement of internode elongation just below the shoot apex or growing point of the main stem is important for assessing plant growth. However, it is difficult to directly measure internode elongation on climbing plants with many leaves, such as cucumber plants. It is also difficult to measure the stem length of tall leafy plants in the field, and is prone to measurement errors. In addition, touching plants to measure them can stress them. Here, we measured internodal growth just below the shoot apex by using a 3D point cloud model reconstructed using Structure from Motion and Multi-View Stereo (SfM/MVS) methods under greenhouse conditions. The SfM/MVS method could nondestructively measure the internode elongation of multiple plants accurately and simultaneously with a root mean square error of 3.1 mm. Elongation was most active in the top two internodes and ceased in older internodes. Average elongation lengths of internodes 1 and 2 as counted from the top (6.7-7.7 mm day^-1) were significantly greater than that of internode 3 (3.37 mm day^-1), which was significantly greater than those of internodes 4 to 6 (0.0-0.5 mm day^-1). These growth rates of two top internodes are the indicator of plant growth, which can be used for plant diagnosis. Our quantitative method for assessing internode elongation can be used under normal greenhouse conditions. Traditional 2D measurements face challenges due to occlusion, which this 3D method overcomes by digitally removing leaves for clear node visibility. 3D measurements enable time series analysis of internode elongation, which is difficult to measure in situ. The 3D data can be stored for later reanalysis.

　The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) reported that agricultural sector absorbs the highest drought’s direct impact, with multiple effect on food security and rural livelihoods. This study focuses on Indonesia to assess the long-term characteristics of agricultural drought hazards. In Indonesia, wet farming crops such as paddy are major agricultural commodities and staple foods, often planted up to three times per year. However, during the dry cropping season, these crops are highly susceptible to agricultural drought, posing a critical challenge to food security. This study utilized the Standardized Precipitation and Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), specifically SPEI-3 to represent agricultural drought, to analyze multiple drought indicators-frequency, duration, and intensity-in Indonesia from 1981 to 2020. Monthly precipitation and potential evaporation data were obtained from the ERA5-Land dataset which provide precipitation and potential evapotranspiration with 0.1° resolution from 1950. The assessment revealed an increasing trend in drought frequency, duration, and intensity over recent decades, particularly notable in South Sumatra and Java Island as the region with a high percentage of agricultural area. However, the most severe drought event occurred during 1991-2000, characterized by record-low precipitation compared to other decades. These findings are crucial for identifying hotspot regions to consider drought mitigation and preparedness strategies.

　Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) is a major vegetable cultivated worldwide and an essential vegetable consumed throughout the year in Japan. However, the suitable temperatures for open-field and tunnel-covered cultivation have not been sufficiently clarified. The present study aimed to comprehensively and quantitively clarify the suitable temperatures for the cultivation of head lettuce in major production areas across Japan using 1-km resolution daily mean air temperature and statistical data on cropping type, production, and planted area, planting date, and harvesting date on the prefectural and municipal levels. The suitable temperature for open-field cultivation was found to be in the inter-quantile range (IQR) of 13.9-20.5°C. By contrast, the IQR in tunnel-covered cultivation, defined as the air temperature outside the tunnel, was estimated to be 4.3-9.8°C. Furthermore, the growing period tended to be longer at lower temperatures. These findings contribute to our understanding of the cultivability for head lettuce and may inform projections of the effects of climate change on lettuce cultivation.

The majority of recent land uses in drylands have been grasslands (32.2% of all drylands) and dryland forests (typical forest and sparse forest including shrub and savanna, 23%). If these lands are appropriately managed, they have the potential to sequester 0.84 Gt of soil organic carbon per year. However, climate change associated with global warming has led to an increase in temperature and irregular rainfall, which can both exacerbate the damage of droughts and desertification, and there is an urgent need to develop sustainable land management in arid regions. This study examined the interannual changes in the degraded land area in arid regions derived from a threshold value of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the satellite-based aridity index (SbAI) from 2000 to 2023. Here, degraded land includes existing deserts and land having both permanent and temporal aeolian desertified areas. The total area of degraded lands was found to have exhibited a decreasing trend since 2000, but has gradually increased since about 2015. A method based on climo-vegetation regions is presented that uses NDVI and SbAI along with the climatological land use and classification of arid regions to understand current vegetation conditions as well as areas that deviated from their climatic potential.