Soil erosion control initiatives in Mozambique are being conducted by government-related organizations, multiple donor groups, non-governmental organizations, and others, but there are limited quantitative evaluations on the effectiveness of soil erosion control measures at the field level. We evaluated the effectiveness of various soil erosion control measures during the rainy season in Nampula and Lichinga which are located in the Nacala Corridor area of Mozambique. The study was conducted over three years in Nampula using pigeon pea, maize, and cassava, and over two years in Lichinga using pigeon pea and maize. Minimum tillage reduced soil erosion by 57% without a significant decrease in crop yield. Residue mulch from sorghum, maize, pigeon pea, and sunflower reduced soil erosion by 62%, 70%, 90 to 95%, and 51%, respectively. Soy residue mulch did not reduce soil erosion, but roughly doubled crop yield compared with no mulching. Vetiver grass hedgerows reduced soil erosion by 77% and the vetiver grass leaves were impervious to termite damage and limited the spread of termites. Pigeon pea alley cropping provided the same level of soil erosion control as pigeon pea mulch. However, pigeon pea alley cropping did not increase crop yield. From this result, pigeon pea alley cropping is unlikely to be adopted by farmers because this treatment requires more pruning work without a commensurate crop yield increase.

Of the soil erosion control measures we evaluated, minimum tillage combined with crop residue mulch is the simplest to implement, requiring no special materials. We recommend this measure as the best method to reduce both soil erosion and physical labour. In fields with termites, minimum tillage should be combined with vetiver grass hedgerows. Soy residue can increase crop yield but it cannot provide a soil erosion control effect, thus it must be combined with another technique.

In recent years, studies on the physiological activities of plants at the genetic level and research on their application have progressed, and these findings are utilized for giving drought tolerance of plants in arid areas, medical care and health. At the research group for Arid Land Technology, with the theme of “Approaching the foundation of plants”, Dr. Teruaki Taji of Professor of Department of Bioscience, Faculty Applied Bio-science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Dr. Takahashi of Discovery Research Development Division of Drug Development, SBI Pharma Co., Ltd. We asked for a two-sided lecturer.Prof. Teruaki Taji, under the theme of Environmental adaptation of plants “whether to take water or protect themselves from disease-causing bacteria”, clarified the mechanism that became the deciding factor” reported with the possibility of new discovery and application. Experiments using Thale Cress (Arabidopsis thaliana) showed that Thale Cress having a gene named ACQOS is excellent in disease resistance but impaired osmotic pressure resistance and Thale Cress that lost ACQOS gains high osmotic pressure resistance but disease resistance. Future developments are greatly expected in crop cultivation field.Dr. Takahashi explained why 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is considered to be an important molecule that plays a fundamental function of living organisms with the theme “Various applications of the root substance of 5-aminolevulinic acid” and an introduction was given about application cases and application possibilities in the various fields. Although the physiological action of ALA in living organisms has been known for a long time, it has been proposed to apply ALA as a low-toxicity photo-requiring herbicide in the field of agriculture as a result of the development of large-scale synthesis method of ALA by fermentation method, and after applying to human health care, the process of being applied in today's medical field etc. was a surprising world beyond the original strange impression.

Plants pre-exposed to stress acquire enhanced stress tolerance. Here we show that a locus, designated ACQOS, determines natural variation in acquired osmotolerance among Arabidopsis thaliana accessions. ACQOS is VICTR, a nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) protein shown previously to activate biotic resistance via the immune regulators EDS1 and PAD4. Under osmotic stress conditions, plants carrying functional ACQOS display detrimental autoimmunity, whereas those lacking it acquire osmotolerance, indicating that ACQOS activates immune pathways and resistance to bacteria, but suppresses osmotolerance. Our study reveals that variation in a single NLR protein mediates the trade-off between plant biotic and abiotic stress signaling.

5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is a natural amino acid biosynthesized universally by every organism. ALA is a precursor of tetrapyrrole such as heme and chlorophyll. Since tetrapyrrole plays a basic role in biological energy production, ALA is called ‘The source of life’. Physiological effects of ALA in an organism were discovered initially in agricultural research. Recently, applications of ALA in medical and healthcare fields are also making a great progress. In this review, we introduce the current state of the research and applications of ALA in various fields.