Agriculture and Rural Development Lab 

Associate Professor Niraj Prakash JOSHI is in-charge of ARDL. He belongs to the Center for Peace and Sustainable Future (CePeaS), IDEC Institute, Hiroshima University; and Social Innovation Science, Graduate School of Innovation and Practice for Smart Society, Hiroshima University. He is also associated with TAOYAKA program, the leading education graduate program for creating a flexible, enduring, peaceful society; and International Economic Development Program, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Hiroshima University.

Lectures offered, including the ones in collaboration with other programs, are Agriculture Production Economics (WMH02301), Developing Designing Ability (WSQN0101), and International Cooperation (WMH02001). Practical learning courses such as Onsite Course Rotation (WSQZ0002) aimed at introducing the pertinent issues in rural Japan, and Onsite Training (WSQZ0101) aimed at exploring the pertinent issues in rural Japan and rural South Asia are offered under TOAYAKA program onsite education. A course on liberal arts for undergraduate students focusing on active learning is also offered under the broader umbrella of the e-START program. 

In ARDL under the Special Study for Master's course (WMHA0062) and PhD course (WMHA0162), we focus on diverse issues of agricultural and rural development by covering the research on poverty, food insecurity, agriculture services and marketing, land issues, women empowerment, migration, and climate change inter alia in developing countries. We primarily rely on primary data collected through fieldwork, which gives a researcher an overall visualization of the research issues on the ground. This is crucial in understanding the data s/he is working on and interpreting the findings in the particular context of the research area. By doing so, we try to come up with a possible solution to the pertinent challenges such as poverty, food security, inefficient use of resources, socio-economic consequences of climate change and migration, and other related challenges faced by the areas in developing countries. 

Some of the research themes we are involved in ARDL are as follows

• Women's involvement in livestock production in rural Nepal under the context of male outmigration and environmental change (22K05851 - Principal Investigator)

• Agricultural Entrepreneurship among Female-headed Remittance Receiving Households in Nepal (17K17917 - Research Collaborator)

•  Agricultural marketing and trade in northern Himalayas of India Subcontinent (15H05253 - Co-investigator)

• Climate change, agriculture, and rural livelihoods

• Poverty and food insecurity

• Organic agriculture and comparative yields

• Adoption of agriculture production technology