A strange thing happened in Japan, that rice was thought to be abundant. In 2024, there was a rice shortage. Around August, rice became scarce at supermarkets, and rice disappeared from the shelves. However, it is said that new rice will be fully lined up at supermarkets from around October. However, even though new rice will be fully lined up from around October, it seems that the high price of rice is expected to continue. So I looked at the actual situation of farmers. In Akita Prefecture, a rice-producing area, there were 27,780 farms producing and selling rice and other agricultural products in 2020. This number is about 10,000 fewer than in 2015. Even though there are rice fields, the decrease in the number of people to carry on the work is a major problem in agriculture. The people who carry on the work are getting older and are no longer physically able to carry on the work.
The traditional rice cultivation method in Ogata Village, Akita Prefecture, begins with growing seedlings in a greenhouse for 3 to 4 weeks in the spring. Next, the rice field is flooded shallowly and the soil is stirred and softened with a tractor, a process known as “plowing.” Traditional rice cultivation is labor-intensive. One farmer is pessimistic about the future, saying, “It’s fine now because I can still move around, but as I get older, it will become too much work.” However, he says that if the burden of continuing farming becomes a problem, the story will be different. It seems that there is a need for ingenuity to reduce the amount of work required in early spring. When people find themselves in a difficult situation, they make efforts and come up with new ideas to overcome it. Signs of this are beginning to appear in Akita. In Ogata Village, a cultivation method in which rice seeds are sown directly in the rice field instead of planting seedlings has gradually spread. This method, called dry-field direct seeding, eliminates the need for management work in early spring.
By introducing dry-field direct seeding, producers can redirect their labor to growing more profitable crops. Shinobu Yoshihara switched to direct seeding on about 8.6 hectares of paddy rice. He acknowledges the success of direct seeding. Yoshihara seems to have made the decision with the thought in mind that he is getting older. With the rising cost of fertilizer and other materials, rice farmers are in a situation that they cannot hope to increase their income through rice cultivation alone. There is a need to increase income by cultivating profitable crops. Direct seeding is expected to be one option to prevent the increase in abandoned farmland and to increase income.
