ISSAAS SCIENTIFIC AWARD
Prof. Dr. Akimi Fujimoto
Prof. Dr. Akimi Fujimoto started his teaching profession at Tokyo University of Agriculture (TUA) in 1983 and is a full professor for more than 15 years. Currently, he teaches Japanese Agriculture, Comparative Agricultural Development, International Organic Agriculture and International Biobusiness Environment among others. Outside TUA, he has been giving lectures for Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Institute of Developing Economies Advanced School (IDEAS).
He served as Director of the Center for International Program (CIP) of TUA for more than 10 years and enhanced relationships with universities resulting in increased number of TUA Global Partner Universities and collaborative projects. He led the initiatives to organize the International Students Summit (ISS) and Comprehensive International Education Program (CIEP) which are now held annually since 2001 and 2008, respectively, and the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Southeast Asian University Consortium for Graduate Education in Agriculture and Natural Resources Dissertation Doctorate Program since 2010.
With more than 30 years of research experience, Prof. Dr. Fujimoto established collaborative researches. His initial research focused on comparative studies in land tenure of Malaysian rice farmers. After which, his interest moved on to clarifying technological and economic performance of rice-based farming to vegetable-based farming in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Nepal and Vietnam among others. He also conducted research in the Andean agricultural development in Peru. In the recent years, he focused on sustainable development, especially environment-friendly agriculture and organic agriculture, coining the term Eco-EcoNogyo, meaning economically and ecologically viable farming systems which balances both aspects to achieve sustainability. Prof. Dr. Fujimoto has been part of several projects including the five- year Academic Frontier Research Project (AFRP), which he helped establish in 1999. With the aim of developing and introducing new bio-agents for alternative farming systems, the AFRP project was extended for another five years. As the project leader, he even attempted to convert conventional farming to organic farming. As most of its collaborators were ISSAAS members, most of its research outputs were also published in the Journal of ISSAAS. To date, he has published a total of 24 papers in the Journal of ISSAAS.
Prof. Dr. Fujimoto is a proactive ISSAAS member. He has also been our Secretary General for more than 10 years since the Central Secretariat was moved from Thailand to Japan in 2002. His role and guidance in successfully holding the Annual International Congress and General Meeting in different countries is indispensible.
Recognizing his entrepreneurial capabilities, TUA appointed Prof. Dr. Fujimoto to be the President of “The Joetsu Tokyo Nodai, Inc.”, the third corporation founded by Tokyo University of Agriculture which aims to contribute to the sustainable development of Japanese agriculture, by rehabilitating abandoned farmlands in a hill farming area in Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture, establishing sustainable organic farm, revitalizing the local community, and promoting the healthy life of the general public.
Indeed, Prof. Dr. Fujimoto has contributed immensely and significantly to research for agricultural development in developing countries and in the improvement and growth of ISSAAS since its establishment in 1994.