2024.9.4
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) posted about our Project’s on-site lecture at the elementary schools on their X account. (previously known as Twitter). The Project has been engaged in an environmental education program in 2 elementary schools in Kyoto Prefecture, teaching 5th grade students about soil and composting. We used our ...
2024.9.3
The final debriefing session for the JICA Grassroots Technical Cooperation Project (Grassroots Cooperation Support Type) “Greening Activities with Organic Waste in Niamey Metropolitan Area of Republic of Niger,” was held. The project started in September 2021, and selected three areas, total of 10.8 hectares in the Niamey Metropolitan where the soil degradation was especiall...
2024.8.29
On August 1, Noda, Aoike, PL Oyama and Sub-PL Shioya assisted in the Kyoto City Zoo who offer “Museum Studies Practice” course to university students who seek job opportunities in fields of museum and zoos. The course has been led by our joint researcher Dr. Yumi Yamanashi (Kyoto City Zoo, Center for Creatures, Learning, and Research). Many of the students were art majors,...
2024.8.26
Since 2022, Oyama Project Leader (PL)has been building a research center in the West region of Lusaka, Zambia. In August 2024, researchers Utako Aoike and Kentaro Noda of RIHN joined at the center. The center will receive food scraps and vegetable scraps from markets and restaurants as pig feed. And the pig’s manure will be utilized through the dry composting process. Lusaka...
2024.8.20
Since March 2024, project members (mainly Oyama PL, Shioya Sub-PL, and researcher Aoike) have been attending to the composting process at Westin Miyako Hotel every Tuesday and Thursday. On August 1, we had the chance to see how the fig plants which the compost had been applied. This summer has been very hot, and the figs ripened a little late due to this. The ripening seas...
2024.7.31
As a collaborative project with the Kyoto Prefectural Board of Education, Project Leader(PL) Oyama gave a lecture at Sonobe Junior High School. The lecture title was “Understanding Desertification”. PL explained about the problem of desertification and land degradation, which is becoming more and more serious around the world. He also talked about the way to solve the proble...
2024.7.27
We have named our composting method Chikyuken Compost (Dry composting type). The materials are soil, rice bran, and chicken manure that can be found anywhere. Soil can be from a garden or field, or soil from used flower pots, soil purchased at a home improvement store, etc. Rice bran can be obtained free of charge from coin-operated rice mills. Chicken manure can also be pur...
2024.7.25
Our composting activity at Westin Miyako Hotel Kyoto, was introduced in the Miyako Hotels & Resorts website, as part of the hotel’s SDGs initiative – the realization of a decarbonized, recycling-oriented society. Project members compost the leftover food scraps from the hotel every Tuesday and Thursday. Composting leftover food scraps (Miyako Hotels&Resor...
2024.7.22
The 7th meeting was held on July 20-21, 2024, at the Lecture Room of RIHN. Joint researchers participating in the Project, presented their research activities of the previous year and plans for the current year. After each presentation of about 15 to 20 minutes and discussion were held. Every year around the time of the traditional Gion Festival, we hold a workshop where joi...
2024.7.9
Shioya, Akiyo, Presentation: Environmental education using composting as a subject in elementary schools in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan Oyama, S. Literature Review: Nakai, H., Ito, T., Omura, M. and Suguro, G. (eds.),(2015) Compost Science: The Forefront of Research in the Age of Environment, Tohoku University Press. Noda, K. Article Review 1) Hirayasu, H., Seyama, T., Wachi, N....
2024.7.2
Aoike, Utako Overview of agriculture in project target countries. Literature Review: Murdock G. P. (1960) Staple subsistence crops of Africa. Geographical Review. 50(4): 523-540. Oyama, Shuichi, Article Review: Naito, M. and Kusube, T. 2000. The current situation of bio-recycling in Japan and obstacles to reconstruction. Journal of Material Cycles and Waste Management 11(5):...
2024.6.25
Noda Kentaro “Article review Azim et al. 2018 Composting parameters and compost quality: a literature review Org. Agri. 8:141-158” Seera Georgina “Composting in Uganda: A review of literature and media”
2024.6.7
As a collaborative project between the Kyoto Prefectural Board of Education and RIHN, Akiyo Shioya and Utako Aoike are giving lessons as a part of the Integrated Learning Program, titled “Let’s make compost from food waste” at elementary schools in Kyoto Prefecture. During class, 5th grade students mix food scraps disposed from school lunches into the soil to make comp...
2024.6.6
A new analysis tool has arrived! A compost ripeness determiner (FHK; Fujihira Industry Co., LTD). This will allow us to measure the maturity of the food waste compost as compost.
2024.6.6
Shuichi Oyama, PI, gave a keynote speech at the Green Purchasing Symposium of the Shiga Green-activity Network (SGN). The title of his speech was “From Waste to Resources: Three Conditions for Waste Valorization to Create New Value.
2024.6.4
The fifth study session was held on Monday, 3rd June. Akiyo Shioya reviewed a paper by N. Horie and K. Hagiwara (2004), titled ‘A study on Urban Green Open Space for Organic Waste Recycling’, JSCE Magazine Environmental Systems Research 32:101-109. Utako Aoike reviewed papers examining the composition of waste composition in the research countries.
2024.6.3
Compost made from food scraps from the Westin Miyako Hotel Kyoto was delivered to a fig farmer’s field in Joyo City. Our team explained its properties and usage and discussed its application with the farmer.
2024.6.3
Akiyo Shioya, Co-PI and Utako Aoike, started composting lessons at two elementary schools in Ide town, Kyoto. The first lesson at each school lasted 45 minutes, during which they gently explained the significance, purpose and procedure of the class to the elementary school children. They prepared the soil so that the children could start adding food scraps to the compost fro...
2024.5.31
On Tuesday, 28th and Thursday, 30th May 2024, online research meetings were held separately. The project co-researchers, four project researchers and three new co-researchers participated. We discussed the progress of the research to date, comments from the external evaluator EREC, and future issues and research policies.
2024.5.23
Shuichi Oyama, PI, gave a lecture at Agri Seika (Hana Kobo), Seika-cho, Kyoto on 21 May 2024. The title of his lecture was ‘Expectations and obstacles for a society with an environmentally sound material cycle: from initiatives in Africa and Kyoto’.