Category Archives: Others

Five teachers of agricultural high schools will leave Tokyo on May 29 for Paris to visit agricultural high schools in France in a one-week itinerary. These teachers have been selected from among 40 applicants to an interaction program that is first sponsored by the government of France aiming at promoting exchanges of agriculture-related persons between France and Japan on a long-term basis. The Japanese governmental agencies, especially the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) have been cooperative with the French government sponsoring this new project. The participants in the one-week trip to France plan to visit three agricultural … Continue reading →

A new uniquely-shaped animal scarer with gleaming eyes and terrifying roars is now being tested in a fruit farmer in Sapporo city, Hokkaido. The scarer looks so much like a wolf and is named “Monster Wolf.” The “wolf” was developed by Ota Seiki Co., Ltd., a machine parts manufacturer in Naie town, Hokkaido, in order to keep animals like deer and bears away from the farms especially at night. The wolf-like scarer measures 60 centimeters in length. The gleaming eyes are made of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and the sounds are provided by a speaker embedded in its head. It turns on and produces approximately 40 different roaring sounds to scare … Continue reading →

Artificial culture of phytoplasma – a pathogenic microorganism that causes a wide variety of symptoms in plants ranging from dwarfing and yellowing to withering – may have become a reality. It has been said that phytoplasmas cannot be grown in axenic culture. But in late April, plant pathologist Kunihei Kishi, 90, presented in the meeting of the Phytopathological Society of Japan that he has succeeded in culturing the microbe in vitro. If the genetic sequence analysis proves the presence of phytoplasmas in the culture fluid, it will be the world’s first successful culture of the organism. Kishi extracted from mulberry trees microorganisms which appear to have caused a phytoplasma-associated disease, … Continue reading →

Farmers of Kumamoto Prefecture are still working to recover, a year after the area was rocked by two powerful earthquakes which marked the highest rating of 7 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale. In the Tateno district in the village of Minamiaso, where the large Aso Ohashi bridge collapsed, water supply remains cut off and farmers are having difficulty resuming their business. But earlier this month, one dairy farmer managed to take up farming again. In Tateno, farmlands and water pipes were damaged in the earthquake that hit the region in the early morning of April 16 last year, following one on April 14. Nearly a year after, on April … Continue reading →