By Toru Nakajima
I am grateful to have been a Visiting Fellow at the CFAES Rattan Lal Center for Carbon Management and Sequestration (Lal Carbon Center) from November 2023 to October 2024. During this period, I studied “Soil Organic Carbon Stock for Carbon Credit in Smallholder Farms” and “Soil Health Assessment by Artificial Intelligence.”
While at Lal Carbon Center, I also enjoyed visiting the Waterman Farm and studying crop residue management. I also had the opportunity to visit a research site in collaboration with CNH Industrial. The project aimed to examine the effects of variable tillage intensity on carbon stocks, greenhouse gas fluxes, and crop yields.
This is my second time joining this center; from 2011 to 2014, I was a Postdoctoral Researcher, collaborating with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). I enjoyed reflecting on the differences between my past experiences and now and reconnecting with old friends and colleagues.
My colleagues and I had lunch together almost every day. During lunch, we discussed research projects we were working on or various other topics. Afterward, we would walk in the garden, enjoying relaxing together.
This experience will be very valuable in my research career and agricultural practices in Japan. It may also become a source of research collaboration between the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Ohio State University. Thank you for hosting me.