Hokkaido University Museum will hold the 10th Saturday Public Seminar of 2025, "Considering the Earth's Carbon Cycle through Cassava Cultivation," on January 10th.

Our 10th guest speaker will be Professor Takuro Shinano of the Graduate Research Faculty of Agriculture Hokkaido University. Cassava, native to South America, is widely cultivated, primarily in tropical regions. While the seeds are used for food in South America and Africa, in Southeast Asia it is primarily cultivated for starch and treated as a cash crop. Its cultivation method is monoculture, an intensive agricultural method that relies on chemical fertilizers and irrigation. This has resulted in significant soil carbon depletion, making it difficult to maintain long-term crop production. Japan imports large quantities of cassava starch from Thailand and Vietnam for various purposes, but at the same time, it is essentially utilizing the soil of those countries. We will introduce research that reexamines the cassava cultivation system in Vietnam and pursues environmentally friendly agriculture that can regenerate carbon in the soil.

For more information, please click here. *You will be redirected to Hokkaido University Museum website.