Sagri’s Kenshi Kobayashi to Speak at MAFF’s First-Ever Side Event at UNCCD COP17 in Mongolia
Sagri’s Kenshi Kobayashi to Speak at MAFF’s First-Ever Side Event at UNCCD COP17 in Mongolia
Sagri Co., Ltd. (headquarters: Tamba, Hyogo; CEO: Shunsuke Tsuboi), which uses satellite data and AI to address challenges in agriculture and the environment, is pleased to announce that Kenshi Kobayashi, Project Manager of the Applied Science Office, Engineering Department, will speak at the side event “Regenerative Agriculture and Sustainable Land Management: Japan’s Innovative Technologies and Approaches,” hosted by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan (MAFF) at the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD COP17). The event will take place on Friday, August 21, 2026, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
This is the first side event MAFF has hosted at a UNCCD COP, co-hosted by the International Platform for Dryland Research and Education (IPDRE) of Tottori University and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). With land degradation — including the conservation of agricultural soils — now an urgent challenge across Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia, the event highlights technologies and products from Japanese private companies that contribute to soil conservation, and examines how governments, the private sector, academic institutions and international organizations can collaborate to advance Sustainable Land Management (SLM).
Mr. Kobayashi will give a presentation titled “Satellite × AI Monitoring of Farmland Soil Carbon for Combating Land Degradation,” covering the estimation of soil organic carbon (SOC) through digital soil mapping — which combines satellite imagery with machine learning — and how it can be applied to combating land degradation. Because the estimates cover entire areas rather than individual sampling points, they reduce the time and cost required to track how far degradation has progressed and to verify whether remediation measures are working, compared with surveys that rely on soil sampling alone.
He will also join the panel discussion “Achieving the Social Implementation of Technologies through Multi-sector Collaboration for Sustainable Land Management,” where he will discuss, together with speakers from government, research institutions and international organizations, what is required to connect measurement and assessment technologies to actual farmland management and to policy and finance mechanisms.
We encourage everyone interested in combating land degradation, regenerative agriculture and the use of satellite data to join this event.
【Event Overview】
Event Name: UNCCD COP17 Side Event — “Regenerative Agriculture and Sustainable Land Management: Japan’s Innovative Technologies and Approaches”
Date & Time: Friday, August 21, 2026, 13:00–14:30 (Ulaanbaatar Time / 14:00–15:30 JST)
Format: In-person only (no online streaming)
Venue: MET-30, Blue Zone, UNCCD COP17 (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)
Fee: Free
Organizer: Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) of Japan
Co-organizers: International Platform for Dryland Research and Education (IPDRE), Tottori University; Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)
【Registration】
No prior registration is required. Participants are welcome to come directly to the venue.
For details on the program and speakers, please refer to the MAFF press releases below.
▼MAFF Press Release (English)
https://www.maff.go.jp/e/policies/inter_relate/2608_unnccd_cop17_side_event_ann.html
▼MAFF Press Release (Japanese)
