Kenichi Matsushima, Associate Professor of Department of Forest Resource, Institute for Mountain Science, and his party made an exploratory survey and collection of plant genetic resources in the 6 states of southern Cambodia from October 1 to 10, 2019. Katsuya Bando, Hiroaki Yamaguchi, the fourth year student of Division of Plant Science and Resources, Faculty of Agriculture, and Sathya Sudasinghe, the first year student of Graduate School of Medicine, Science and Engineering were member of the party.

As a result of the survey, they collected 85 accessions of plant genetic resources, such as chili pepper and amaranthus. After next year, these plant genetic resources will be test-grown and evaluated in each institutions in Japan and Cambodia and the seeds will be conserved in gene bank in both countries. The seeds will be utilized in breed improvement and various research.

This survey was carried out by the research project "Enhancement of collecting and providing of overseas plant genetic resources" (PGRAsia)　commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.