Here, Japanese wheat breeding and agronomic studies on lodging resistance, focusing on culm strength are discussed. In Japan, the selection of short-culm wheat varieties is preferred for breeding purposes to date due to their lodging resistance, whereas culm strength has only marginally improved. However, improving culm strength was suggested to help improve lodging resistance in short-culm varieties. Thus, among the 18 typical and predominant wheat varieties, “Yumechikara” showed maximum bending moment at the breaking of the basal internode and produced the strongest culm. Meanwhile, among other varieties that produced strong culms, some demonstrated considerable bending stress and medium section modulus, whereas some showed medium bending stress and large section modulus. Improved varieties with higher lodging resistance may be produced by crossbreeding of varieties with different levels of culm strength. Regarding the effects of crop management, decreased seeding rates resulted in shorter culm length and increased bending moment at the breaking point of the basal internode, which indicated higher lodging resistance. Therefore, low seeding rates may be suitable for heavily fertilized wheat crops, requiring high lodging resistance.

The blast of Italian ryegrass (Lolium multiflorum) and perennial ryegrass (L. perenne) is a serious disease, especially in the southwestern region of Japan, and it causes seedling blight and directly affects crop yield. Isolates of the pathogenic fungus were obtained from ryegrass of Miyakonojo (31°N), Kyushu to Osaki (38°N), Tohoku, Japan from 1999 to 2010, and 126 isolates were identified as Pyricularia oryzae based on the sequences of rDNA-ITS and the β-tubulin gene. The pathogen was inoculated into the seedlings of Italian ryegrass under different temperatures and showed the most rapid lesion enlargement at 31°C and more abundant sporulation from 22°C to 31°C within the tested range of 19°C and 34°C, which suggested that the pathogen favored medium–high temperatures. Italian ryegrass seeds were coated with fungicides, and this method was found to be effective in controlling the disease in the field. Orysastrobin, a permeable QoI fungicide, was more effective than benomyl or probenazole in suppressing disease occurrence. The effect was clear regardless of the Italian ryegrass cultivar used. Orysastrobin most suppressed lesion enlargement and sporulation in the seedling inoculation tests. Especially in warm and wet regions, the fungicide-coated seeds method is an effective technique for suppressing the disease.

This review describes the different applications of real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) quantification for monitoring, evaluating, and predicting the growth behavior of foodborne pathogenic bacteria in food materials. Real-time PCR has been successfully used to quantify the cell numbers of target pathogenic bacteria from food materials containing high levels of naturally occurring microbial flora and to monitor their growth under a variety of conditions over time. Real-time PCR has higher accuracy than conventional plate count method, which tends to underestimate bacterial viable cell numbers, particularly after high-stress treatments. Owing to its high accuracy, speed, and throughput, real-time PCR is highly recommended as an alternative tool for obtaining microbial growth data for model construction in predictive microbiology. Furthermore, this technique is particularly useful for evaluating levels of bacterial injury following stress exposure as well as other available estimation methods. Real-time PCR quantification has considerable potential for a wide range of applications on a large scale to ensure microbial safety from farm to table, such as supporting the development of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point system.

Citrus cultivar identification systems using cleaved amplified polymorphic site and single-nucleotide polymorphism markers have been developed for nursery trees and flesh fruits, but time and cost efficiency require improvement for the inspection process. Here, we developed a new cultivar identification system using the InDel marker. Twelve InDel markers, which revealed clear bi-allelic PCR fragment patterns, were selected from 185 InDel markers. Their primer sets were redesigned to generate less than 650 bp PCR fragments, and all were confirmed to apply to leaf and fresh fruit samples. It was confirmed that they were inherited in a codominant fashion among cultivars with parent–offspring relationships. At least two differentiating InDel polymorphisms to discriminate any paired combination among 33 citrus cultivars were provided, including 14 ancestral varieties and a reference genome cultivar of the clementine mandarin. Minimal marker subsets to identify the target cultivar are listed for each of the 14 registered cultivars with valid breeder’s rights. The developed cultivar identification system features a simple experimental procedure with PCR and electrophoresis, saving time and cost during the inspection process. It could help protect registered cultivars from the illegal distribution of nursery trees and the reimportation of illegal fruits from abroad.

Biogas effluent (BE) is a potential source of fertilizer for rice. Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) irrigation based on surface water level can increase rice grain yield (GY), but its effect under BE application is still unclear. To test whether AWD can increase GY under BE application, we conducted a mesocosm experiment under screen-house conditions in Can Tho, Vietnam. We measured rice growth and yield under three nitrogen (N) treatments—zero-N (Z), synthetic fertilizer (SF), and BE—and two irrigation regimes—continuous flooding (CF) and AWD with a re-irrigation threshold of 15 cm below the soil surface. Chlorophyll content (SPAD) and leaf color chart (LCC) values were higher in SF than in BE, but plant height was comparable. Although GY was not significantly different between CF and AWD, AWD increased it by 12% in BE relative to CF. All N use efficiency (NUE) indices (apparent N recovery, agronomic NUE, and internal NUE) were comparable between AWD and CF in BE and SF. The results indicate that AWD irrigation is feasible under the application of cattle BE and the combination can improve rice GY.

In 2015-2016, we investigated the farmland management procedures used on dairy farms in Japan using a mail-back survey. In Hokkaido, 98% of the surveyed farms had meadows, 53% had pastures, and 49% had forage crop fields. In all other prefectures, 19% of farms had meadows, 10% had pastures, and 90% had forage crop fields. The median area of each field category per farm was greater in Hokkaido than in the other prefectures. In all places, the application rate of organic fertilizer decreased in the following order: forage crop field > meadow > pasture (37, 8.7, and 2.7 Mg-manure ha⁻¹ y⁻¹, respectively, in Hokkaido). In forage crop fields, organic fertilizer was applied at lower rates and inorganic fertilizer was applied at higher rates in Hokkaido than elsewhere (37 vs. 69 Mg-manure ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ and 42 vs. 22 kg-N ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ respectively). In meadows, organic fertilizer was applied at lower rates in Hokkaido (8.7 vs. 14 Mg-manure ha⁻¹ y⁻¹); however, inorganic fertilizer was applied at similar rates. The annual rate of grassland renovation with full-inversion tillage in 2006-2010 was 3.0% in Hokkaido and 1.3% in the other prefectures. In both regions, manure was intensively applied during grassland renovation.

Indica and japonica rice are commonly subjected to different market structures, and the international prices for both subspecies display different trends. The global indica and japonica rice markets in the mid and long term under climate change conditions were projected by the Rice Economy Climate Change (RECC) model. Additionally, endogenous agricultural investments were incorporated into the projections. A COVID-19 pandemic scenario was stimulated to observe its impact on the global indica and japonica rice markets. The results indicated that agricultural investments are expected to decrease in many indica rice-producing countries, whereas the investments will increase in many japonica rice-producing countries in the long term. Therefore, the global indica rice production will decrease due to its investment reduction; however, global japonica rice production will increase in the mid and long term. Due to the COVID-19 scenario, the international indica and japonica rice prices would decrease in 2020 due to the unprecedented shrinking economies worldwide, but the prices would increase from 2021 to 2040 compared with the baseline average of the price projections with the RECC model. The scenario simulation results reveal that the japonica rice markets are projected to have less impact than the indica rice markets from the COVID-19 pandemic.

To minimize climate risks of agricultural price hikes during meteorological disasters, this study aims to demonstrate the feasibility of forecasting agricultural prices several months ahead and evaluates the reproducibility of annual price fluctuations. We use the crop yields forecasted by the crop model and apply the quasi-dynamic large-scale global computable general equilibrium (CGE) model with 88 countries/regions to evaluate as many countries as possible worldwide. From the simulation results, the model’s accuracy to trace actual crop price fluctuations, which was measured by the regional average correlation coefficient data during 1995-2015, ranged from 0.13 to 0.26 per crop, and almost 30% of targeted countries marked statistically significant traceability. Such accuracy was higher in the developed liberal countries. Regarding forecasting 3-6 months ahead of the harvest, in approximately 20% of the targeted countries, the CGE model can reproduce actual price fluctuations, and a 3-month extension of the forecast period reduces the reproducibility by 16.7% for the correlation coefficient on average of four crops. Thus, the reproducibility of the model was not high, but in countries with statistically significant reproducibility, forecasting price fluctuations several months ahead can be used to prepare for meteorological disasters.

We predicted developmental changes (endodormancy breaking, budding, and full-flowering) in ‘Delaware’ grapes induced by climate change in Osaka Prefecture, Japan, to consider adaptation measures. Endodormancy breaking (the day when the accumulation of chilling hours below 7.2°C reached 600 h; DCH600), budding, and full-flowering dates were estimated using models based on air temperature. A projected air temperature dataset until 2100 with 1 km resolution for two emission scenarios of Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP2.6, low; RCP8.5, high) was applied to these models. DCH600 was delayed by 19 (RCP2.6) and 21 (RCP8.5) days in 2041/2042-2050/2051, whereas in 2091/2092-2099/2100, it was projected to be 21 (RCP2.6) and 48 (RCP8.5) days later than that in 1981/1982-1990/1991. Conversely, the budding date was earlier by 6 (RCP2.6) and 7 (RCP8.5) days in 2041-2050 than in 1981-1990. The full-flowering date was earlier by 9 (RCP2.6) and 12 (RCP8.5) days in 2041-2050 than in 1981-1990. Based on these prediction results, it may be possible to sustain ‘Delaware’ grape production until 2050 through advanced cultivation management. However, after 2050 under RCP8.5, delayed DCH600 and inadequate chilling are predicted, necessitating a change in cropping type or conversion to other fruit trees.

Chronic mucocutaneous candidiasis caused by Candida tropicalis was identified in a 43-day-old female piglet with lesions on body surfaces (face, abdomen, limbs, and hooves) and mucosal surfaces of the oral cavity and stomach (nonglandular region). Cytomegalovirus (CMV) inclusion bodies were observed in the epidermis, apocrine sweat gland, rostral plate eccrine gland, buccal gland, duodenal gland, and renal distal tubule. In addition, adenovirus-like inclusion bodies, Cryptosporidium, and Brachyspira were detected in the intestine. The presence of these opportunistic pathogens on or in the skin and oral–gastrointestinal mucosa implies that the piglet had immunological defects, especially in mucocutaneous barriers. Thus, CMV may have facilitated the activity of C. tropicalis and may have contributed to the persistence of candidiasis.

Previously, we have reported a novel bioethanol production system based on solid-state fermentation (SSF) and forage rice, which is used in a silage-making process. In this study, we evaluated the productivity of valuable materials via SSF using various plant materials other than forage rice. Italian ryegrass, sorghum, cassava, and other plant materials are also promising for SSF. Laboratory-scale SSF experiments using raw materials of Italian ryegrass yielded a maximum of 99 mg/g of dry matter of ethanol and other valuable materials (organic acids and soluble sugars). The conversion rates were almost the same as that of the forage rice. The nutritional value of the fermented products as livestock feed either improved or was similar to that of silage.