Eliminate farmland abandoned land! Sake Rice Project November 15, 14:46

What do you want to drink after work? Beer and highball are good, but how about sake? I want to drink it with delicious dishes such as sashimi, oden, cheese and yakitori. In Shizukuishi-cho, Iwate Prefecture, there is a group of part-time farmers who have started to reduce the “abandoned farmland” that is increasing throughout the country by making sake rice, which is the raw material for sake. I followed them as they struggled to regain the original landscape of Japan with its golden farmland.
(Mr. Morioka broadcaster Naoki Hatsuda)

Abandoned cultivated land

Shizukuishi Town in the inland area of ​​Iwate Prefecture. The area is thriving in rice cultivation, but the number of rice fields and fields that are no longer cultivated due to lack of bearers has increased 1.6 times over the past 10 years.

This increase in abandoned farmland is not just a problem for Shizukuishi-cho, but the entire Iwate prefecture increased 2.6 times compared to 20 years ago.

In Tohoku as a whole, there are about 19,000 hectares of abandoned land when converted to the Tokyo Dome area. The background is the aging of farmers, lack of successors, and a decrease in rice consumption.

Farmer's natural enemy is abandoned

What effect will there be if the number of abandoned farmland increases? One is the home of the rice pest stink bug.

The stink bug jumps to the rice field nearby and sucks the juice from the ears. Then, black spots will remain on the rice, which may lower the grade of rice that can be divided into 1st and 2nd grades. It ’s a natural enemy of farmers.

It is also said to cause wild animals such as wild boars and deer. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the total damage caused by wild birds and animals in the Tohoku region is 1.3 billion yen.

Standing part-time farmer

“Is there any way to make use of abandoned farmland?” Junya Sandakabe (50), a part-time farmer, started to reduce the abandoned farmland. Three years ago, I started making sake rice with my friends in the town as a “Hitotsu no Sake Project”.

Mr. Sandwall's main business is a salesman at a car dealership. In addition to Mr. Sandwall, members from the agriculture company gathered, including working at a cleaning company and president of an event company.

Mr. Sandwall who was a transfer family. Shizukuishi-cho is a region where there are ski resorts and hot springs, and tourism is thriving, but I felt that there were few special products. Sake attracted attention.

He thought, “If you use abandoned farmland to grow sake rice and make original sake, it will become a special product.”

Farmland increased 10 times in 4 years

To secure farmland, we used a matching system for lending and borrowing farmland from local agricultural corporations. It is a mechanism in which a public corporation enters between a person who wants to cease cultivation and lends land and a person who wants to rent like Sandwall.

The sand walls searched for and increased the number of farmland that had conditions such as whether they could secure a place and waterway. It's been 4 years since I started making sake rice. Agricultural land has expanded to 10 times 5 hectares.

Struggling to make liquor rice

On the other hand, there are difficulties in cultivation. Sake rice grows taller than edible rice and has a lot of ears, making it easy to fall. If you surrender, the quality may drop and it will take time to harvest.

In addition, there are walls unique to abandoned farmland. For example, when I started growing sake rice in an abandoned farmland that was a soybean field, there was excess fertilizer left on the soil, so rice grew more than expected, and lodging continued.

“I was expecting, but if someone did not use it first, the abandoned farmland would not be restored. The tuition was high, but I studied. It should be fine from next year.”

Contract cultivation where breweries in Iwate Prefecture hold the key

The background of the sand wall's steady increase in farmland is the support of sake breweries in Iwate Prefecture.

Since all sake rice is in contract farming and the prefecture of the brewery, it says that it can grow with confidence easy to start the prospect of selling the destination and price. Kotoshi contracted with three sake breweries.

Now, sake is booming overseas. Over the past 10 years, exports have doubled and exports have tripled. There is a tendency to emphasize quality over quantity, and there is an increasing need for quality sake rice.

“Thanks to the farmers who make good quality sake rice like Mr. Sandwall, I can be the center of Iwate sake rice production.”

Awarded overseas

In June, Mr. Sandwall visited Rome with a hakama. Mr. Sunakabe's sake using sake rice was awarded a gold medal at "Monde Selection", which is given to excellent foods around the world.

Projects that started with the desire to eliminate the abandoned farmland have begun to bear fruit. Mr. Sandwall has already received a request to increase the amount of cultivation next year.

In order to regain the original landscape where the golden farmland spreads, Mr. Sandabe talks to young people and wants to try to make sake rice.

We will continue to pay attention to sake rice production activities

Mr. Sunabe holds annual rice planting and rice harvesting events for the general public to increase the number of sake fans.

I learned about Mr. Sandwall's activities when I was invited to plant rice by someone from an acquaintance's restaurant.

Born in Osaka, I had a fresh experience of planting seedlings in paddy fields, and I was attracted to the black-tanned sand wall who taught me how to plant it more happily than anything else.

I hope the activity will spread and there will be no more abandoned farmland.

After working at the Morioka Broadcasting Station reporter Naoki Hatsuda Shimbun, he joined Iwate Prefectural Government, the economy, and the earthquake disaster.