サステイナビリティと作物生産学 (Sustainability and Crop Production)

Overview Agricultural science is known as the science of life and livelihood. The objects of agricultural sciences are matters of lives of students, whether food, land or weather. In this course, students will learn to know agricultural problems and challenges particularly topics of crop production in a manner that students themselves are inquired, whether their choices of food or life style or technologies of agriculture. Regarding "death", the philosopher Jankerevich considered "first person death", "second person death" and "third person death". This differences in person names are applied to the issues of agricultural science, such as "food" and "environment". This lecture invites you to such an intellectual quest. “Sustainability” has become a popular word among people, such as SDGs, and it will be easy to quote the definition and explain it. In this lecture, students will focus on expressing and interpreting the foreign word "sustainability" in their own words. The world of agriculture changes with era and has regional diversity. This course is a master's course lecture of IPADS which attract diverse students from different countries and regions with different agricultural experiences. The mutual interactions among the students may broaden understandings of agricultural diversity. Students will learn the history of agricultural sciences (and crop production science) and also the background of the terms "sustainability" and "sustainable development". Crop production technology is broadly divided into agronomy and breeding. Basic traditional techniques such as fertilization, irrigation and breeding are still important, whereas "new breeding methods" and "smart farming methods" have arisen as cutting-edge technologies. The lecture cannot cover all the technologies of production. Students will discuss the justice in using some technologies. For example, traditional techniques such as irrigation development in developing countries and participatory cultivar selection are studied through role-plays and stakeholder analysis. Sustainability ratings are not always self-explanatory when it comes to advanced cutting-edge technology. Evaluating the unknown risks of advanced technologies is often important. Students will read materials (videos, papers, etc.) related to genetically modified crops, express their opinions, and discuss the possibilities and risks of genome editing technology, smart agriculture, and information science/technology. One of the elements of sustainability is justice in society. Students will consider who will be benefitted and who will not, and whether the technology will ensure social justice or not. Conflict, reconciliation and peace-building will be covered in lectures. International conflicts, which continue and are on the rise, can easily damage crop production in agriculture. Lectures will also cover futurology and eschatology. The SDGs were formulated using a technique called "back casting" in futuristic studies. The same applies to the “Strategy for Sustainable Food Systems, MeaDRI” of Japan. It is a method of predicting the future that has yet to come, as if by using a ruler of time, and thinking about what we should do now, five or ten years from now, for an ideal future. On the other hand, eschatology expresses the prospect of a complete peace, which is far from being achieved in present societies. It concerns not only international relations but also harmony within the natural world. Students’ world visions may or may not include eschatological perspectives toward nature and societies, which may be important in envisioning the future world of agriculture. The lecture also touches on agricultural ethics. Rather than focusing on a specific discipline, this course is designed to broaden students’ horizons for developing their thoughts and to facilitate interactions with other students.