University of Toyama¡¯s GRASS Centre organized a Bilateral International Workshop in Collaboration with IIT Kharagpur and ICRISAT, India

The Global Research Centre for Advanced Sustainability Science (GRASS) at the University of Toyama collaborated with the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IITK) and the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) to organize the JSPS-ICSSR Bilateral workshop. The workshop was titled “Climate Smart Farming Resilient Technologies and Practices in Japan and Opportunities for Indian Farmers and Agri-Tech Start-up Entrepreneurs” and took place on March 6-8th, 2024 at IIT Kharagpur and ICRISAT in India.

The first two days of the workshop were held at IIT Kharagpur, where Prof. Dillip Kumar Swain is the Principal Investigator of the Indian side and the host convenor for the Bilateral International workshop. On the third day, Dr. Mukund D Patil, who is a project partner from ICRISAT, hosted the final event of the workshop at ICRISAT, Hyderabad, India. Prof. Geetha Mohan, the Principal Investigator of the Japanese side, led a team of seven members including Toyama Kankyo Seibi company staff to attend the international workshop.

Upon arrival, the GRASS-led Japan team visited Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewarias, the Director of IIT Kharagpur, for a courtesy visit to his office. The Japan team provided details about the visit and the bilateral international workshop. Afterwards, the team visited Prof. Dillip Kumar Swain’s laboratory and crop experimental fields and farm engineering to learn about their new technologies that can help farmers and improve their livelihoods against climate change.

During a two-day workshop, experts from India and Japan came together to share their knowledge and insights on climate-smart farming technologies and sustainable agriculture. The workshop covered various topics, including climate change, conservation, and organic farming. Presenters also discussed innovative crop models and strategies for adapting to climate change.

One of the highlights of the workshop was the Poster Showcase and Young Researchers Session, which recognized the best posters and ideas for climate-smart farming and sustainable food systems. On the final day of the workshop, a panel discussion was held to discuss the way forward on the outcomes, particularly on strengthening the industry and academialinkage in India and Japan.

On the third day of the workshop at ICRISAT, Dr. Mukund D Patel hosted the events. We visited various places including SAT Venture, GHG Monitoring Experiment and Composting Facility, Centre of Excellence on Climate Change Research for Plant Production, Gene Bank, Ihub, and had an interactive session with ICRISAT scientists about current ongoing research and future collaboration. Our project goal was to create an exceptional platform to promote and exchange technical and scientific expertise between Japanese and Indian academic and research institutions, Agri-Tech companies, young researchers, and farmers. We successfully met this goal.

Prof. Naoya Wada, the Director, and Prof. Horie Norio, the Vice-Director, of GRASS would like to express their sincere gratitude to our research partner in India, Prof. Dillip Kumar Swain, and his students for their invaluable contributions in making this workshop a resounding success. They would also like to extend their sincere appreciation to our project partner, Dr. Mukund D Patil from ICRISAT, for his dedicated efforts.