Rice is enriched with calories, protein which is required for sustenance and a good port of vitamins. It is the member of a family of plants that includes grass, marijuana and bamboo. There are almost 120,000 varieties of rice and their plants can grow 10 ft. high and shoot up to 8 inches in a day.
Rice is the main crop in Japan which is being cultivated for more than 3000 years and has been mandatory in Japanese diet. Many people only ate rice, pickles and vegetables with a piece of chicken, meat or fish, until the most recent times. “Rice is a spiritual touchstone in this country”, the journalist wrote.
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Rice Farming in Japan
We can grow rice in many ways. Some varieties of rice demand little water while other require irrigation. Some require more fertilizer than others. Some are labor-intensive but others can be left to themselves for some time.
The main source of rice cultivation in Japan is planting the seedlings in paddies and grow it there. From padding-planting in spring to harvest it in the autumn, farmers look after them carefully. When spring comes, farmers plough and irrigate paddies to prepare them and cultivates the seedlings to be planted. After the seedlings grow in greenhouse, they are transplanted to the paddy. Then in autumn, the seedlings begin to grow into young rice plants and then during one of the days of summer, small white flowers will appear which will blossom for an hour. Once pollinated, the flowers will close and after 40 days, creates seeds, i.e., rice.
Production Rate
Japan produces a surplus of rice but the production has fallen 20% in the past decade. In Japan, there are over 1.8 million rice-growing households. This is because:
- People are eating less rice than before. The modern generation prefers bread over rice in breakfast.
- When children inherit the rice farms, they do not want to grow rice. They want to go to the cities because there is no income in farming. But even still, government does not allow people to buy farmlands to grow a building etc.
- Due to governments restriction the farm area fell from 2.1 million in 1995 to 1.6 million in 2010. Rice yield grew by only 0.2% per year. The rice production fell 1% every year from 2005-10 and is still falling.
- Whereas, rice export improved from 10,000 in 1995 to 38000 in 2010. Under WTO, Japan allows market access of imported rice of 8% of the rice requirement of the country. The rice which are imported are not released in the market. They are stored in government stocks to use in the form of aid for developing countries etc.
Conclusion
Rice cultivation is capable of great output and is a source of wealth for most of the people in Japan. Europeans, until the revolution of the West, were always impressed at the wealth of the East which was based on rice cultivation. Although now the times are changing.
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