アフリカは暑くて、乾燥していて、だからお米が育ちにくい、となんとなく想像する方もいるかもしれませんが、ザンビアは逆です。寒くてお米が育ちにくい場合が多いです。南半球ですから、冬は7月頃で、最低気温が１０度近い日もあるようです。もちろん乾燥は確かに問題ですが、１１月から３月までは毎月数百ミリの雨が降ります。その短い雨季にどうやって農業をやるのか、ということが勝負になってくるわけです。

　私の専門、物質循環学を駆使して（私の専門は環境生命地球化学と言ったりいろいろしていますが、結局は土にあるいろんな栄養素の循環を見ているわけです）、いろいろと良いアドバイスが出来れば、と思ってはいましたが、なかなか難しい問題です。一つ気になったことは、日本で良く見られる、ミミズなどがたくさんいるような黒い土がこちらにはあまり無いということです。専門的な言葉で言うと「有機物量」や「微生物活性」が低い土が主であるということです。こういう土で農業をやるのは大変です。たくさんの化学肥料が必要だったり、他の微生物との競争があまりないため、病原菌が大発生しやすい環境になってしまうわけです。

　日本の稲作農家たちは、苦労しながら、いい土を作ってきたわけです。その知識がザンビアでも生かせるのではないかな、と考えています。

     I have been to Zambia. Africa is one of the places that I always love to visit and do some scientific works. I love Africa not only because Africa has been markedly developing in recent years but also because of its beautiful nature and people. I also love the fact that everything is not so organized, unlike my country. The theme of this visit was "rice production". I inspected different areas in Zambia, trying to find out the way to establish rice fields, which is not easy. 

     Many may imagine that the climate is too hot and dry for rice crops here in Zambia but it is actually the opposite. Rice crops are often damaged due to the cold weather. The minimum temperature in this country can go down to 10 degree C, in July. Drought is definitely an issue here but from Nov to Mar, normally more than 200 mm of rainfall is observed, per month. Thus this rainy season is the busy agricultural season as well. 

     I wanted to give some good advises using my knowledge and skills as a nutrient cycle specialist (I often call myself a environmental biogeochemist but I basically look at all the nutrients and their balances within soils) but it was very hard. I noticed that soils here do not normally have "black" colour with many earthworms, as we often see in Japanese soils. Using special terminologies, soils here have little organic matter and microbial activity is very low, in general. Agricultural activities on these soils can be very tough. Crops may require a lot of fertilizers and the outbreak of microbial diseases may be common because there is no competition among microbes. 

     I know that historically, Japanese rice farmers have worked hard to produce good soils and I believe that some of their skills may be useful in Zambia.