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Katsuo Sasaki
Katsuo Sasaki, WWF Climate Witness from Japan
© WWF Japan
My name is Katsuo Sasaki. I am a farmer and I have more than 40 years experience in growing rice. I am based in Miyagi on the northern part of mainland Honshu. I have been growing organic rice for the last 12 years, aiming to secure the supply of healthy food. I have been experiencing a lot of changes that affect my farming activities, which I believe are due to climate change, especially in the last ten years. I am afraid that my farm will no longer be suitable for producing rice in next decades.
Low quality rice
Miyagi is known as a high-quality rice producing area. But during the last ten years the quality of rice has been degrading. When the summer temperature is high, the rice grains get opacified. Opacified rice cannot be sold because of its poor quality. Most farmers around here, including myself, have been struggling with opacifying rice, and this year, the prefectural government has instructed us to put off the timing of planting so that the rice would ripen in autumn, when the temperature is lower. In other words, because of these changes in our climate, we have already come to the point that we actually need to adapt our farming practices to the new environment.
Beware of bugs
Deadly bugs have increased recently, especially shield bugs. These bugs cause black spots on rice, lessening the commercial value of the crops. Ten years ago, I rarely saw shield bugs, but they are increasingly found in most parts of Japan's agriculture sector.
Many farmers believe this is due to global warming, which appears to be causing a lot of trouble, not only to rice farmers but also to vegetable and fruit farmers. As a result, lots of farmers have no other choice but to use more pesticides to control the insects. As I have been focusing on growing strong organic rice, my rice is still resistant to those bugs, but I fear that in the coming decades, Miyagi will no longer be a suitable place for growing rice.
Good rice needs three components - suitable climate, good soil and clean mineral water. I strongly feel Miyagi is losing its suitable climate due to climate change. In the coming decades, viable rice farming will probably be limited to Hokkaido, the northern Island of Japan, and the Miyagi area, which is well known for its high-grade rice will soon lose its reputation. It is happening. I can see only bad things from the impact of climate change. This worries me.
Extreme weather
We are also experiencing more frequent extreme weather than when I started as a farmer. Summer temperatures tend to fluctuate considerably each year - one year summer temperatures are hotter than average, the next year they are colder. Both extremes are detrimental to rice growing.
I feel that it is because of climate change that we are experiencing more change in temperature range. Last year, we experienced torrential rainfall at the end of December, which is very unusual. We often get heavy rainfall in the typhoon season in September and in the rainy season in July, but we never had heavy rainfall in December as far as I can remember. We were lucky last year because it didn't hit our farming area, but in the future we need to be ready for these kinds of unexpected weather events that never happened before.
Living in harmony with nature
We have been using nature so far to suit our needs. We have used a lot of pesticides and fertilizers and we abandoned some of the farm ground when it was not productive enough, not thinking about the cycle of nature. I feel the ecosystem is collapsing because of these practices. Now, due to global warming, many farmers feel that they have no other choice but to use even more pesticides, thus further undermining the ecosystem and endangering the food security. It is vicious cycle.
I am trying to break this cycle by focusing on growing organic rice, which I believe is the best way to secure the supply of healthy food for the customers. I think we need to value the natural qualities of rice, and try to strengthen these qualities so that we can produce more resilient rice. I believe we need to live in harmony with nature, instead of abusing nature.
Scientific background
According to IPCC TAR, the average temperature increased 1°C in Japan, and the precipitation increased 5 to 10%. IPCC projections suggest that this trend will continue, thus affecting Japan's agriculture sector. The National Agriculture and Bio-oriented Research Organization (NARO) in Japan has reported that warmer temperatures have degraded rice quality and increased the incidence of harmful insects in 70% of Japan's rice fields, and that rice production is likely to shift to the northern part of Japan.
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