The arid and semi arid regions in the Gobi Desert and northern China are one of the main source regions for Asian dust events. The aim of this study is to understand the spatial and temporal characteristics of spring dust outbreaks that occurred during the period from 1999 to 2013. Spatial distributions show that dust outbreaks occurred most frequently in the Gobi Desert, followed by the Loess Plateau. In those regions, strong wind also occurred frequently, and the dry land surfaces were characterized by sparse vegetation and snow cover. However, dust outbreaks occurred infrequently in the Inner Mongolian grassland, even though frequent strong wind was observed. Temporal variations show that the occurrence of dust outbreaks was highest between 2000 and 2002, followed by 2006, and then decreased significantly between 2007 and 2013. Statistically significant correlations were found between the frequency of dust outbreaks and strong wind (r=0.80, p<0.01), and the spring normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) (r=-0.67, p<0.01). Thus, the frequency of dust outbreaks increased with the occurrence of strong wind, and was inhibited by abundant spring vegetation. Since the condition of vegetation coverage is connected with the condition of land degradation and desertification, the effect of anthropogenic factors (e.g., grazing) on vegetation is also discussed. Due to the limitation of available data, this study region is restricted in Inner Mongolia. The results suggest that the expansion of fenced grassland areas, and a plateauing of the amount of land being cultivated and the livestock population were related to the increase in the NDVI, especially from 2007 to 2013, which in turn was responsible for the recent decline in the frequency of dust outbreaks.

The potential use of brewers’ grain (BG) for animal feed was estimated, targeting Ulaanbaatar and Tuv Prefecture in Mongolia. Relative data such as numbers of animals in the country and areas under study, production, chemical composition, and costs of purchase and transportation of BG compared with wheat bran (WB) were used for analysis. Although BG was less widely available than WB, the costs of purchase and transportation of BG may be lower for areas near the central production sites, and the opportunities for BG use were increasing for herders further out of production. The results of this study indicate a good potential for BG to be utilized as animal feed in the target areas.

This study clarified detailed brewing techniques at the villages in Tanzania and Cameroon. The characteristics of the brewing techniques at the research fields were compared. The result showed the brewing techniques for saccharification differed between the research fields, whereas that for fermentation was similar. This study demonstrated that the brewing techniques have been developed differently in each research field according to available ingredients.

The Ga people, originally a fishing ethnic group inhabiting in Accra, the capital city of the Republic of Ghana, have developed a corn food culture. In this paper, the corn food culture of Ga people was attempted to be revealed through two processes. Firstly, the overall view of their corn food culture was examined by analyzing the ritual uses of corn foods in the Ga society (use of corn foods and drinks for the rituals of naming ceremonies for new born babies, funerals, or New Year festivals), the diversity of cooking methods of various corn foods, and the existence of fermented foods. Secondly, by focusing on the fermented diet food Komi, a cooking procedure and the way of eating Komi were analyzed. The finding was that Komi was not cooked in households but purchased from local Komi Sellers. The reason of this, which was shown by the research results of Komi production and the study of Komi Sellers, was that preparation and cooking of Komi was a heavy labor which was not able to continue in households. Finally, based on the research of daily meals of a household, the actual conditions of dietary culture of the Ga People and the position of Komi in their food culture were revealed.

The food culture of the Dirashe and Konso people in Southern Ethiopia is highly unique as their staple food is alcoholic beverage made of sorghum and Zea mays. The Dirashe area and Konso area lie adjacent to each other, and they have a lot in common in their ecological environment, history, culture, society and the like. Other than having the Omoro tribe as their ancestor, some of other similarities are their harsh semi-arid climate, severe insect damage, and land feature being slope mostly covered with stones. It can be assumed that, as these two groups having a lot of common grounds communicated with each other, they developed a very rare food culture that people took in nutrition necessary for survival by consuming crops in a form of alcoholic beverage, which is easier to consume compared to solid food or saccharified drinks.

However, the specifics of their food culture are never identical. The Dirashe people grow the limited kinds of crop plant with little labor input, so their food variety is also limited and meals are mainly consisted of local beer Since local beer is liquid diet, thus unfilling, the Dirashe people spend all of their spare time consuming it in order to supplement necessary nutrition. On the other hand, the Konso people devote their energy to utilizing land thoroughly to grow a great range of crop plant. Therefore, they have various types of food such as potatos, pulses and vegetables in addition to local beer. Yet, their farming method is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and they have such a limited spare time that their mealtimes in a day are fixed. Additionally, while the Dirashe people try to simplify the day-to-day brewing process by contriving ways to store beer in the course of and at the completion of brewing, the Konso people try to lessen their burden by taking turns in brewing among a group of ten households and above. Furthermore, the flavors of local beer brewed by these two groups are completely different. Each group prefers drinking their own local beer.

In this way, the food culture of these two groups are not uniform since they are influenced by the multifaceted factors such as their cultivated crops, farming methods, social relationships and tastes.