FisheriesJapanese feed maker Feed One says about 38,000 eels roughly doubled in size on its fishmeal-free Kamui ZERO feed, though feed efficiency was lower than on a 60% fishmeal diet.
Tokyo start-up Kinish has raised JPY 490 million in a Series A first close to sell its rice-based ice cream and scale up molecular farming of casein in dwarf rice grown in plant factories.
OpinionIn a Down To Earth column, Afsheen Rizvi and V Sujatha say Japan halved food loss by 2023 through law, data, food banks and the culture of mottainai, and that India, wasting 78-80 million tonnes a year, could build the same system now.
CropsArata Takebe pledged to keep agricultural reform moving, naming farmland protection, farm succession and productivity as priorities and Japan's JPY5 trillion export target for 2030.
CropsJapan's JIRCAS and the International Rice Research Institute signed an agreement in Tokyo on 13 October to study soil microbes and nitrogen fixation in rice and the effect of alternate wetting and drying on methane and water use.
WorldA JPY 300 million grant will let WFP serve school meals to 57,000 pupils in the Republic of Congo and support refugees and asylum seekers from the DRC and Central African Republic.
CropsSyngenta will market cyclopyranil, a PPO-inhibiting rice herbicide developed by Japan's Kyoyu Agri, in selected Asian markets, giving growers a new tool against grass and broadleaf weeds resistant to ACCase and ALS herbicides.
FisheriesAt an Ehime University symposium on chemical risks from medicine, farming, aquaculture and livestock, Dhaka University researchers presented work on nanoparticle feed for pangas and antibiotic pollution in water; the two universities will sign an MoU.
VegetablesUS start-up Heritable Agriculture will run Kagome's tomato germplasm and breeding data through its AI genomics platform to find genes for resistance to a major, undisclosed tomato disease, then breed them into Kagome varieties.
FisheriesA Japanese start-up has built an indoor aquaponics system that raises trout and strawberries together, using a specially formulated fish feed so the crop needs no added fertiliser.
HealthA team led by surgeon Yoshiki Sawa placed a sheet of heart-muscle cells made from iPS cells on the heart of a woman in her fifties; 75 more patients are planned by 2033.
AgrotechA UK-Japan team showed how a new class of wheat receptors lures blast-fungus effectors, and bioengineered them to recognise the pathogen on both wheat and barley.
AgrotechEditing the lachrymatory factor synthase gene cut enzyme activity to under 40 percent of controls in leaves and bulbs, but the edited plants were stunted and set no seed, so a commercial low-tear onion is still some way off.
Fendt says its PTx OutRun retrofit kit lets a sensor-equipped tractor haul a grain cart to the combine with no driver, John Deere reaches level-4-like autonomy with StarFire and AI cameras, and Kubota will launch Japan's first remotely monitored unmanned tractors in April 2027.
A 24-member delegation from beef, pork, corn and soybean groups saw US Meat Export Federation promotion in Tokyo, retail displays, a beef-tongue plant, a Wagyu auction and culinary training, and United Soybean Board director Tom Griffiths argued that exporting soybeans through beef and pork keeps
Japanese agtech startup Culta, which breeds fruit varieties with AI and sells the branded produce through contract growers, is in talks in Australia, the US and Europe as it aims for ¥30 billion ($195 million) in revenue by 2032.
Horticulture is now worth about $1.4 trillion a year, yet only half of countries grow enough fruit and vegetables to meet the FAO/WHO target of 400g a person a day.
AgrotechJapanese scientist Yuichi Mori grows vegetables without soil on a polymer film adapted from kidney dialysis membranes; the BBC reported that the method uses 90 percent less water than conventional farming and no pesticides.
