Rice planted in uninhabitable part of Iitate

June 10, 2013

Rice planted in decontaminated paddy in Nagadoro

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/20130610_24.html

People in a village in Fukushima Prefecture have planted rice seedlings in a decontaminated paddy to see if they can resume commercial farming there.

The test planting took place in a 500-square-meter paddy in the Nagadoro District of Iitate Village on Monday.

Nagadoro is the only district in the village listed as uninhabitable for the next 5 years by the central government. Radiation readings top 50 millisieverts per year.

All villagers have evacuated following the 2011 disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

Last August, decontamination workers removed 5 centimeters of topsoil from the surface of the paddy.
Radioactive cesium in the soil reportedly fell more than 90 percent, from about 20,000 to 1,600 becquerels per kilogram.

Iitate officials plan to harvest rice from the paddy in September. They will dispose of it after analyzing how much cesium the crop contains.

Nagadoro District mayor, Yoshitomo Shigihara, says he is excited about the planting, which is the 1st for the district in 3 years. He says it is tough for farmers to dispose of their produce, but he hopes the test will yield positive results.