information about Fukushima published in English in Japanese media info publiée en anglais dans la presse japonaise
26 Novembre 2012
November 26, 2012
The town government of Hirono and the village government of Kawauchi in Fukushima Prefecture have decided to resume planting rice next year.
Both municipal governments had asked farmers to voluntarily stop planting rice shortly after the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant began.
On Tuesday, the Hirono town government decided to resume rice planting in all areas, and the Kawauchi village government decided to plant rice in areas other than that formerly designated as a no-entry zone.
It will be the first resumption of rice planting in areas designated as emergency evacuation preparation areas.
Though many farmers welcomed the decisions, some voiced concern about whether the rice could be sold.
This month, the Hirono town government began decontaminating about 400 hectares of farmland by using such techniques as a process called sparging in conjunction with the mineral zeolite, which can absorb radioactive substances.
The town government aims to complete the work by the end of this fiscal year.
Yoshiyuki Haga, 65, evacuated to Chiba Prefecture after the start of the nuclear crisis but later returned to Hirono. He has been removing weeds in his rice paddies since August last year.
"If I can grow rice, the town will be revitalized even if only a little," he said. "Some of the residents will return."
But it is uncertain how many farmers among the town's about 400 farming households will resume planting rice.
Some farmers voiced lingering concern about whether they will be able to sell the rice they produce.
This year, Ryohei Niitsuma, 53, planted rice despite the town government's request to refrain from doing so.
But after he sent letters to about 100 individual customers, only five or six replied that they would buy the rice.
"It's painful for me that the rice I produced through hard work doesn't sell," he said. "But unless I continue production, this town will decline."
Niitsuma said he will plant rice on about five hectares next year.
This year, all bags of rice experimentally grown in the town were examined, and two of them were found to contain radioactive cesium in quantities exceeding the government-set maximum limit of 100 becquerels per kilogram.
But it is believed the radioactive substances detected in the bags came from such sources as dust in rice hullers, not the rice itself [??]
"The rice itself had no problems," the town government said, adding that all bags of rice to be shipped next year will be carefully checked to ensure safety.
At a meeting of the Kawauchi village agricultural committee held Tuesday, Mayor Yuko Endo asked villagers about rice planting next year, and all committee members said they planned to resume.
One of them said, "If we don't plant, the paddies will be ruined."
According to the village government, quantities of radioactive cesium in rice experimentally grown in 30 locations were lower than the central government-set limit. [yes but is there such a thing as a limit?]
Endo said: "If we don't plant rice for three years in a row [since the nuclear crisis], morale will suffer. As the experimental growing showed no problems, there's no reason not to plant rice."
An agriculture committee in Minami-Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, on Tuesday asked Mayor Katsunobu Sakurai to decide as soon as possible whether they should plant rice next year.
The mayor replied: "I want to see when decontamination can be completed. I'll decide by the middle of December."
The city government asked farmers to refrain from planting rice in all areas in the city after the onset of the nuclear crisis.
The city government grew rice experimentally in 130 locations, including those in the former no-entry zone.
The harvested unpolished rice fell within the government-set limit for radioactive cesium.
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