We're thrilled to announce that Tokyo8 will be a part of the Africa Food Systems Forum 2023! Hosted by H.E Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of the Republic of Tanzania, and the AGRF Partner's Group, this year's summit is scheduled to take place in Dar es Salaam from September 05 to 08, 2023, at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre. Theme: Recover, Regenerate, Act: Africa’s Solutions to Food Systems Transformation The theme of the 2023 Summit, "Recover, Regenerate, Act: Africa’s Solutions to Food Systems Transformation," resonates deeply with Tokyo8’s commitment to regenerative agriculture for sustainability. The summit is aimed to facilitate building back better food systems with a deliberate focus on youth and women. With around 3000 delegates in attendance, the event aims to foster dialogues and discussions and define strategies, and adopt measures to work towards sustainable and resilient food systems. Tokyo8's CommitmentThe Tokyo8 Global Team is excited to participate in this year's summit, within the booth of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry of Japan, and engage in dialogues with global agri-food systems leaders, activists, and stakeholders. Our goal is to contribute to the food systems conversation and highlight the importance of regenerative agriculture through Tokyo8 as a means of creating wealth for the African continent. This participation marks a significant step towards local production of Tokyo8 biofertilizer in Tanzania and Africa. We're dedicated to engaging with global agri-food systems leaders, industry influencers, and passionate activists to collectively drive positive change Get Involved Should you find yourself in Tanzania during these dates and share an interest in exploring potential business collaborations with Tokyo8 biofertilizer, we extend an open invitation to connect and join us in our shared mission towards Sustainable Food Systems. Together, we can forge a path towards a more resilient, prosperous, and sustainable Africa and beyond. Event Details: - Date: September 04-08, 2023
- Location: Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania - Website: [AGRF 2023 Official Website](https://www.agrf-inperson.com/) Join Tokyo8 and the global community in shaping the future of food systems. Together, we can Recover, Regenerate, and Act for a more sustainable and prosperous Africa.
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Join Us for the Tokyo8 Webinar: Creating a Global Impact in Agriculture and Social Transformation7/19/2023 Don't Miss the August 2023 Webinar to Learn, Share, and Contribute to a Sustainable Future Date: August 29, 2023 Time: 17:00 JST Location: Online (Zoom) Registration link: https://forms.gle/8rkvRbLb6QiwhNzy9  Are you passionate about making a global impact and contributing to the restoration of soil fertility, the preservation of the agricultural environment, and the resolution of critical social issues like food security, nutrition, and poverty? Look no further! We are thrilled to invite you to another groundbreaking webinar that will revolutionize your understanding of the Tokyo8 initiative and mark the beginning of an impactful partnership.
The Tokyo8 Webinar, scheduled for August 29, 2023, promises to deliver even better results and experiences compared to past seminars. With most crops already harvested, fascinating insights and breakthroughs await your discovery. This exclusive event offers a unique opportunity to learn about successful business models implemented worldwide through Tokyo8, empowering you to adapt and implement your own working model. Inspiring stories of how some graduated from being a Tokyo8 user to a Tokyo8 producer will be shared too with the hope to inspire aspiring franchisees. The webinar, presented in both English and Japanese, will provide simultaneous translation between the two languages, ensuring seamless communication. Distinguished presenters from diverse regions of the world will showcase their outstanding results and share invaluable experiences. Furthermore, attendees will have the opportunity to engage with the presenters, ask questions, and seek clarifications. Don't miss this extraordinary opportunity to join the Tokyo8 movement and become an agent of positive change. Register now for the August 2023 webinar and embark on a transformative journey toward a sustainable future. Together, we can pave the way for a world where soil fertility is restored, the agricultural environment is preserved, and critical social issues such as food security, nutrition, and poverty are effectively addressed. Stay tuned for more updates and detailed information regarding the webinar agenda and featured speakers. We look forward to welcoming you on August 29th! Register today! Register here https://forms.gle/8rkvRbLb6QiwhNzy9 This year, Taiyo-yuka had a chance to showcase Tokyo8, alongside 449 other companies that exhibited their products at the Nogyo Week or Agri Week.Pretty much, nōgyō (pronounced “Nougyou”) is a Japanese word for Agriculture. So, nōgyō week is simply Agriculture Week. Precisely, it is an Agri-expo week, which brings together many companies that have products related to agriculture, ranging from inputs, to outputs, and advanced agri-tech. The nōgyō week started on Monday the 10th, but exhibitions began on the 12th.  The exhibition took place at Makuhari Messe from 10am in the morning, till 6pm in the evening on all the three days. Our booth was set-up in a customer-friendly manner, to make sure that people had the chance to clearly appreciate what we do, and take a look at our samples, as well as experimental plants. Even though we did not clearly record the number of visitors daily, we had an average visit of 240 people per day. Every staff member took time to passionately explain to the visitors, who are potential clients, the mechanism behind Tokyo8, and our business plans. Throughout the three days of exhibition, the company staff (including company managers and interns) had a chance to be present on at least one day, and experience the exhibition atmosphere. Even though the expectation was a Japanese-based audience, we had visitors from many countries who spoke different languages! It was quite interesting to have our product gain interest amongst different people, who would be potential clients and/or bridges to clients for different countries and regions. Overall, the exhibition was a huge success. We exchanged contacts with over seven hundred (700) people throughout the week, and gave out free Tokyo8 samples to some who had interest in trying Tokyo8. Many more received the booklets on Tokyo8 and Taiyo-Yuka (we hope they find time to read them and reach out to us soon!). As a plus, we also gave out CHOCOLATE to people who took time to hear from us! Yes, a chocolate pack from an Indonesian company, Krakakoa. This special chocolate pack reaches beyond your taste buds and finds a restful place in your memory. Each pack had six different chocolate flavors.
Here’s a little bit about Krakakoa:
Krakakoa believes that farmers in Indonesia should realize full profit in the labor they put in their farms, whilst protecting the environment from which they grow their cocoa. In the company’s business, they support youth and women empowerment, and enriching livelihoods of smallholder farmers, through processing cocoa for economic growth. Taiyo-Yuka hopes to work with them soon at the intercept of our separate missions and goals.  Hello everyone, Early this year, Tokyo8 Global, was accepted for two official side events by JICA, scheduled for the 19th 30th of August 2022, to share about our activities with our collaborators in Africa. You can find the recorded video of the first sessions on our Youtube channel in both English and Japanese. The second session can as well be accessed in both English and Japanese A big shout out to the presenters who shared their experiences, as well as everyone who participated in the event. It was quite beyond our expectations. Here is a quick rundown through the webinar content.
M.Matsumoto, the executive of Tokyo8 global and managing director of Assentia Holdings, was the moderator of the event. His welcome remarks included how our biofertilizer Tokyo8 would be a good support to different farming methods such as regenerative agriculture. He told how the Tokyo8 project was born from the global vision that the Late Former prime minister ABE Shizo had when he started the ABE Initiative, and we are determined to carry this vision forward. He also stated his hopes for agriculture in Africa and other developing countries. The CEO of Tokyo8 Global and Taiyo-Yuka, M. Ishida Taihei, introduced Tokyo8 as a product of the company’s recycling activities. He stated the base philosophy behind our activities, which is to use waste considered as unuseful byproducts to make something of value that will improve society. He shared his vision for innovation and awareness on environmental and societal sustainability with the hope of empowerment of the most vulnerable communities and small-holder farmers. The next remarks were from M. Ishida Yohei, the Managing Director of Tokyo8 Global and Taiyo Yuka, who gave global information about Tokyo8 and our activities in 15 countries. Using our recycling know-how to improve agriculture globally by providing a product that gives results speedily and is affordable is our main strength. He quickly ran through the history of the biofertilizer and the uniqueness of its business model, which centers on local production and affordability. This is ideal for small scale farming and low income households. He also explained the mechanism by which Tokyo8 works in the soil to improve agricultural yield. His remarks were followed by reports from trials in Africa.  The first presentation was made by Mr Jonathan E. Kpalu from Liberia, an ex-ABE initiative participant. He presented an overview of agriculture in Liberia and stated his views towards the many challenges met by the agricultural sector in Liberia as an opportunity for Tokyo8. He shared the upsides and challenges he and his team faced in the utilization of Tokyo8. He then summarized the procedures the team took in experimenting the effectiveness of Tokyo8 on five crops; Okra, Cucumber, Palaver Sauce, Water Green and Sweet Corn, grown on three different plots each. One plot had NPK only, another had NPK and Dextrin, a third had a mix of NPK (20%), Dextrin (20%) and Tokyo 8 (100%), while another only had Tokyo 8. The Sweet Corn, Palaver sauce, and Water Green grown on plots with the combination of Tokyo8, Dextrin and NPK had the highest germination rate and yield. Cucumber and Okra performed best in plots with only Tokyo8. In Jonathan's view, Tokyo8 will be necessary for promotion of sustainable agriculture, enrichment of soils and reduction of pesticide use. He sees Tokyo8 as environmentally friendly, good for biodiversity and as a means of increasing productivity and income for farmers, an improvement for lowland farming. He concluded by stating the intention to conduct trials of Tokyo8 in rural Liberia and to build a Tokyo 8 production plant and include tests on tree crops.  The next presentation from Lesotho by Mr Tanki Mochochoko began with a brief introduction of the country’s topography, climate, economy and agriculture in general. They also gave a summary of their experiment, which they conducted on two Green Coronet Cabbage plots top-dressed using kraal manure, where one had Tokyo 8 and another had no Tokyo 8. The Lesotho team did not use any herbicide or pesticide. The cabbage grown with Tokyo8 matured earlier and had observably bigger cabbage heads as compared to the other cabbage. M. Tanki expressed his surprise at the difference in the cabbage sizes as he did not expect such results. It also seemed more juicy by appearance, even though he did not have the chance to cook and eat by himself. When taken to the market for sale, there was more demand for the cabbage grown with Tokyo8 as it was much better in appearance and weight. However, the area experienced flooding as such, they cannot conclusively determine the effects of Tokyo8 as running water had most possibly caused some leaching. Due to limited man power, inadequate planning time, and flooding, the team was unable to take note of and measure all necessary variables. They plan to be more intentional with proper planning including flood resistance measures since flooding has become persistent in the country. They also plan to test on more crops, have some students recruited exclusively to the Tokyo8 project and to partner with people who have flood tunnels. Farmers who were introduced to Tokyo8 were very eager to get a hold of more Toky8. They intend to conduct a detailed need assessment survey and give some Tokyo8 to farmers for marketing and multiplier effect. He saw a need to establish a plant locally so they can serve the local demand.  Next was a presentation from Malawi by Mrs Victoria Bweo Mhone who began by introducing the country’s climate, agriculture status and fertilizer access and usage. Even though the trials in Malawi did not reach the harvest stage, Victoria explained the progress done in Malawi so far in terms of performing trials on Tokyo8 on tomato and leafy green vegetables. Three plots were prepared, one on which Tokyo8 was used exclusively, on another usual inorganic fertilizer application was done, and in another, a combination of both Tokyo8 and inorganic fertilizer was used. She observed fast growth of vegetables and a change in the coloring of the soil where Tokyo8 was applied. According to them, mixing with manure gives the best results. According to Victoria, Tokyo8 is a good way to reduce food production costs as there will be an increased use of locally produced manure, a reduction in the usage of chemical fertilizers and in the reliance on imports. She believes that with the use of Tokyo8, a time will soon come when farmers will stop using chemical fertilizers. Tokyo8 is good for maintaining and improving soil health and quality, and hastens the decomposition of manure. She found it easy to produce locally such that all the materials she used were sourced in her township. She plans to conduct another experiment design which will test effects of combined Tokyo8 with kraal manure and another to test Tokyo8 and reduced fertilizer quantity. She concluded by stating the main challenge faced by the Malawi team, which is high costs of harboring research for one and a half years (three planting seasons), as a policy requirement in Malawi prior to having Tokyo8 authorized for use in the country. She is unable to meet the current demand, and is facing mobility challenges to deliver the product and train farmers in the use of Tokyo8. Victoria believes that Tokyo8 is a key to her passion to improve the livelihoods of farmers. As such, she plans to get certification, install a production plant and supply throughout the northern region as well as other parts of the country.  The last presentation from Mozambique was done by Mr Sato, who represented Nippon Biodiesel Fuel (NBF) Ltd/ADm, Ida, a company that focuses on energy, food and finance in cooperation with local communities, businesses and the government. He began by introducing the work done by his affiliated company and strides taken so far in promoting agriculture. Unlike other countries, the team in Mozambique have not conducted trials on plants yet, but have managed to set up a production plant, which they started this year, and have now completed at a total material cost of JPY200,000. The main challenge they have faced thus far is in finding the right kind of pipes and connectors fit for the task and at a good price. For products which were very hard to find, they improvised with locally found materials. They have successfully produced Tokyo8 using local materials and are now set to begin trials. The Mozambique team showed us a video of the tanks that have been set up. To be safe from power outages, the Mozambique team proposed the use of solar for electricity to escape from unwanted power outages. He is positive and enthusiastic, especially as inspired by other presenters.  In the Q&A session, questions included clarity on mechanism of Tokyo8, difference in quality of Tokyo8 based on the type of manure used, reasons for difference in germination rate when Tokyo8 is used exclusively and when used with other products, as well as the quantity of manure needed and storage inconveniences. Due to limited time, other questions were posed on the website and yet others were asked in the follow-up session. Please see the youtube video for more details. Remember to like and subscribe here.
Hello everyone, As summer goes on, a big event is on its way as well. In the light of TICAD8 that will take place the 27-28 of August 2022, TICAD8 side-events will soon start too. TICAD, or "The Tokyo International Conference on African Development" has been held since 1993 and is the origin of numerous projects of collaboration between Africa and Japan. We can say that without TICAD, Tokyo8 wouldn't develop the way it is actually doing as the root of our international development is the collaboration of ex ABE Initiative students. Therefore it is important for us to hold a side-event during TICAD8. Being close to the aniversary of the start of the international operations, we will organize August the 19th and the 30th, reporting and discussion sessions to exchange information and showcase the progress made so far. Please see below for the event guideline and application:  A Simple way to achieve Healthy Soil and Food Security in Africa - Regenerative Agriculture from Tokyo (Informal side event of TICAD8)In the light of TICAD8, we are organizing an event geared toward the exchange of experience and opinion from using Tokyo8, an organic biofertilizer based on micro-organisms (has received the certification for use in Organic agriculture JAS in Japan).
Food security and soil health are important problems that are growing alongside the population. With the disruption of the distribution chain and the war in Ukraine, cereals and fertilizers are getting scarce or expensive. Tokyo8 aims to alleviate those issues with a biofertilizer that can be locally produced at a very low price. With a microfranchise business model and installations that are affordable/can be built anywhere with water, we aspire to revolutionize the usage of fertilizers in African countries and participate in the betterment of the society. This model could not have evolved this way without the participation and the input of ex ABE Initiative students and African exchange students and we hope it can involve further thanks to them. It will soon be one year since our cooperation with people from various African countries has started, therefore we want to give a platform to express their voice to the ex ABE Initiative students that have agreed to use and explore the local production of Tokyo8 in their own countries in order to support small-holder farmers and local agriculture. They will share their different experiences with the product and the local community. It will also cover their opinion and impression on Tokyo8 as well as how they used the biofertilizer and their projects with it. The program will be :
This event will take place during the side event period of TICAD8, a Japanese government-led conference to be held in Tunisia on August 27th and 28th. Outline of the event: A Simple Way Healthy Soil and Food Security - Regenerative Agriculture from Tokyo Day 1: August 19, 2022 (Friday) 19:00 - 21:00 Presentations and information exchange mainly from overseas Day 2: August 30, 2022 (Tuesday) 19:00-21:00 Presentations and information exchange mainly from Japan Venue: zoom webinar; participation is welcome. Participation fee: Free of charge Eligibility: Anyone interested in healthy soil, food security, and regenerative agriculture How to participate: Register by using the following form. The webinar link will be sent to you in a few days. Capacity: 100 participants We look forward to your participation and hearing your voice. Do you know about La Nina and El Nino climate events? Right now it has been since 2020 that we have been in La Nina climate event. Multi-year La Nina is very rare and we need to prepare for it to exceptionally continue next year as well. Without getting into the details on why this happens and how it is predicted (Pacific ocean surface is colder than usual) let me explain the details of this. In the big picture it is causing dryer summers and winters more prone to cold snaps. Also more droughts in the Northern atmosphere and bigger floods in the Southern atmosphere (usually in the beginning of the year between December to February) (remember the floods in Mozambique in the last few years). From the reports of the people collaborating with us, from the Tokyo8 testers in Liberia there has been an unusual dry spell which affected the results of the cultivating experiment. Also in Lesotho, they were not able to start the experiment because of the abnormally long rainy season. There were also similar reports in Indonesia concerning the rain. This situation is very likely to repeat next year. So what can we expect for next year?  Source: https://public.wmo.int/en/media/news/el-ni%C3%B1o-la-ni%C3%B1a-update-february-2022 For Japan, similar as this year we will likely experience a short Tsuyu (rainy season) as well as weaker typhoons than in El Nino periods. But droughts will intensify in South-West Japan (peaking in August-October) and for North-East Japan too (June-August). Winter (especially in February-March) will be more prone to cold snaps that greatly affect the production of tree fruits such as apples and pears.
For Africa, we can expect floods similar to last year and the year before for the East coast this fall and next year as well. Those floods will be followed by unusual dry spells and severe droughts similar to what happened in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia this year. This year and next year will be difficult for agriculture since food prices have been on the rise since 2020 and with the war in Ukraine and the shortages in chemical fertilizers it will only get worse. This is why we need to find alternatives to our way of cultivating. Sources: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01668-1 https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jmsj/98/6/98_2020-064/_html/-char/en https://www.hindawi.com/journals/amete/2013/632470/ https://www.climatelinks.org/blog/la-nina-and-climate-change-cause-exceptional-drought-east-africa https://www.downtoearth.org.in/interviews/africa/east-africa-drought-climate-change-is-making-la-ni-a-impact-severe--83283 In 2022, from the 30th of March to the 30th of May, we accepted interns at our company. Mostly from East Africa, They came from Eritrea, Malawi and Tanzania, doing Long-Term Internship within their scholarship offered by JICA (ABE Initiative).  They were able to participate in different activities at our company and were even able to use our biofertilizer, Tokyo8, by themselves and see the effect in the span of two month with regular visits to the fields.
They also participated in planting activities for green onions. They wished that there were more small planting systems like the one that they used in their own country. Aside from selling and producing Tokyo8, they are looking to provide those kinds of services once their business is settled. Provide the opportunity to the farmers to be supplied with better seeds/seedlings as well as machinery that will help them to be more efficient.
By harvesting onions, they were able to see how soft the soil was and how easy it was to pull them!
We have received news of them lately. Now they are back home, and they are preparing trials to test Tokyo8 locally. They are also making procedures to register their business and be able to spread Tokyo8 in their countries! Here in the picture you can see one of the interns (from Malawi), surveying fields for trials with Tokyo8. In the future, we might see delicious vegetables from Malawi grown with our locally produced biofertilizer!
In Japan and in most African countries, the price of chemical fertilizers is on a sharp rise. Most of the farmers are having financial issues because of that. With Tokyo8, they could be able to reduce the quantity of chemical fertilizers and pesticides that they are using. We hope they can solve these issues with their new business opportunity!
Hello everyone, I hope you are doing well and that so far 2022 has been successful for you. As you might know, we are still actively trying to expand Tokyo8 abroad, especially to Africa. Since it has been a long time since the last time I got in touch with you, here are some updates on Tokyo8.
For their experiment, they went with the following approach: they wanted to test the difference with Tokyo8 and the conventional way of farming. But they also wanted to see the effects of Tokyo8 concerning insects. Here is the following plan they used:  On those plots they planted maize, cucumber, water green and okra, that are still growing but also palaver sauce of which I will present the results in this post. As you can see from the following pictures from right to the left you have palaver sauce that was grown with NPK, NPK+Dextrin, Tokyo8, Tokyo8+NPK+Dextrin. Manure was applied to all the plots.
The two fields with the better yields were the one using Tokyo8 with the plot Tokyo8 and the plot Tokyo8+NPK+Dextrin being respectively 31.5%(85) and 58%(157) of the yield (number of stems), compared to 4.2%(11) and 6.3%(17) for the two plots not using Tokyo8. The plots that were using Tokyo8 also had stems that were higher.
Those results are very encouraging and we are looking forward to the other crops still in cultivation. We are really grateful for the work of Jonathan and his team. We are in the middle of preparing the next step to develop Tokyo8 with them.
A simple bottle, safe and easy to use, you just have to mix some of it with water and spray it. No smell or special protection need. No complicated machine or formulation. Even though our product has been existing for several years, we only have started our operation to abrod recently, in the summer of 2021. This is not an easy task in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic but we believe firmly into supporting small scale farmers with our franchise system. We have to face the reality, it is really hard for small scale farmers to be profitable. It hurts even more when you think that in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is one of the most common occupation (with around 60~80% of farmers according to the country). Most of them cannot afford pesticides, fertilizers and machinery. Farmers using Tokyo8 were able to reduce drastically their use of fertilizers and pesticides, up to an 80% reduction for some! And the best part of it is that they were still able to have a higher yield as usual with better quality vegetables that were sold at a higher price. But is Tokyo8 cheap? The answer is yes. Our plan through our franchise system is to produce Tokyo8 locally. With only exporting Tokyo8, the price would be too high . But with local production, Tokyo8 would be at a price that anybody can afford. If you want to know more about us, please feel free to use the contact form!
More information is on the way! |
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