Japanese

The Prize Winners 2013

Restoration of Rice Paddies Devastated by the Tsunami of the Great East Japan Earthquake Using Resilience of the Ecosystem
- NPO Tambo

Outline of the Project

A farming method filling rice paddies with water in winter, “fuyumizutambo,” has been conducted in Kabukurinuma and its surrounding rice paddies in Miyagi Prefecture. In 2005, this farming method using the resilience of the ecosystem was highly evaluated, and Kabukurinuma and its surrounding rice paddies were designated as a Ramsar site, a worldwide first for rice paddies. “Fuyumizutambo,” a traditional farming method, has become widely known in recent years in the wake of the implementation in Kabukurinuma and its surrounding areas.
NPO Tambo has encouraged the participation of more than 1200 volunteers from a variety of fields in order to restore rice paddies through their manual work. The project of Tambo has been conducted mainly in Kesennuma, Shiogama and Minamisanriku Cities in Miyagi Prefecture and Rikuzentakata City in Iwate Prefecture. By making use of fuyumizutambo method, salt pollution has successfully been suppressed. In addition, Tambo has conducted investigations and monitoring including biodiversity, water quality and microbe activities in soils at project sites in order to grasp the situation. As a result, the rice paddies have produced rich harvests since the autumn of 2011. “Agricultural lands after tsunami become rich,” a tradition of this region representing the strong and elastic minds of predecessors, was scientifically proven.

Tsunami recalled in history

The tsunami caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake brought unprecedented damage. The big scars of damage by the tsunami still remain although 3 years have nearly passed. The Earthquake is often mentioned along with the phrases such as “once in 1000 years” or “unexpected.” But, is that true? The fear of tsunami has been recorded in stone monuments or documents from long ago. Since the Meiji Era, immense damage has been recorded also by photographs. We can see a ship on a hill carried by a tsunami and a devastated village in the photographs of the Meiji Sanriku Tsunami. “Agricultural lands after tsunami become rich!” In the Sanriku Region which often sustains enormous damage from tsunami, this tradition has been passed down with the fierce fury of nature. Just as the proverb goes, “The worse luck now, the better another time.” We can sense strong and elastic minds of predecessors from traditions.

Past tsunami and the tsunami on 11th March

After the Great East Japan Earthquake, a great volume of rubble and wreckage remained on the farmlands devastated by the tsunami. The farmlands went through a sea change and we did not know where to start. However, according to our investigation, the microbe activity in the accumulated soils brought by tsunami was very high. If the soils brought by tsunami also bring rich harvests, it is very wasteful to remove the surface soils for saline suppression. Also, if we use heavy machinery for removing large items of rubble such as cars and power poles, the soil layer structure of the rice paddies might be damaged and it might become impossible to fill the rice paddies with water. In addition, we might not be able to retrieve small pieces of rubble such as glass pieces as they could sink into the soil layers due to the use of heavy machinery.

Therefore, in order to make use of the power of soils, it is important to remove rubble and wreckage through manual work even if it takes an immense amount of time. All the rubble and wreckage were carefully removed by manual work in cooperation with a great number of volunteers. We firstly removed large items of rubble and then removed small and tiny pieces of rubble. Tiny glass pieces were screened for garbage segregation. Such a tremendous amount of work had never been experienced in the past tsunami disasters. In the Meiji Era, most things were biodegradable as they were made of wood, paper or food fibers. Things not biologically broken down were limited to some materials such as chinaware, clasps and so on.

Fuyumizutambo” revives the rice paddies damaged by tsunami

After restoring furrows and canals, we let water flow to the rice paddies in Oya, Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture. We could make significant progress and we were ready to fill the rice paddies with water in late May 2011. Since then, along with the agricultural work including rice planting, weeding and harvesting, we have conducted investigations and monitoring of biodiversity, water quality and soil quality in cooperation with local citizens. As a result of investigations and monitoring, we confirm that the salinity has been suppressed and biota is being changed from seawater biota to freshwater biota. During hot summer days, salinity increased at times. But we could prevent salt pollution by increasing water volume in the rice paddies as we grasped the situation in advance through monitoring.

Such activities are expanding from Oya, Motoyoshi-cho, Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture in 2011, to Shiogama City, Ishinomaki City, Minamisanriku-cho in Miyagi Prefecture and Rikuzentakata City in Iwate Prefecture. Crop yields in Oya in 2011 were greater than those in 2010 and also the taste of the rice was better. The traditional saying in the Sanriku region, “Agricultural lands after tsunami become rich,” was proved to be quite right. Harvested rice from devastated agricultural lands including Minamisanriku are on sale as “Fukko-mai (福幸米)” in the hope of promoting people’s happiness and a quick recovery of the devastated areas. The name of Fukko-mai is meaningful: 福 (fuku, here the second “u” is silent) and 幸(ko) mean felicity and happiness, respectively, and the pronunciation fukko also means recovery. (米, “mai” means rice.) We also hope that consumers can connect with the producers in the devastated areas and the circle for restoring devastated land will be expanding.

Since before the Earthquake, we have conducted saline suppression by filling water in rice paddies using the “fuyumizutambo” method which makes rice paddies biodiverse. Rice cultivation using fuyumizutambo is traditional, and it seemed to be conducted at least in the Edo Era. Recently, fuyumizutambo became widely known through the implementation in Kabukurinuma and its surrounding rice paddies located in the northern part of Miyagi Prefecture. In Japan, this area is known as one of the largest wintering places for wild geese, and the fuyumizutambo method was used for enlarging the wintering places. As well as nurturing a variety of living things throughout the year, “fuyumizutambo” is also effective for fertilizing the soils, recharging groundwater, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and so on. Globally speaking, rice paddies in the Ebro delta, Spain are flooded in winter in order to suppress salt pollution. The same method as fuyumizutambo is utilized also in Spain.

Application to high water damages

The fuyumizutambo method with which we restored farmlands damaged by the giant tsunami is not limited to the tsunami attacking once in several decades or several hundred years. The fuyumizutambo method is also applicable to high water damage not only in Japan but also in other countries. We hope that through our project we have been able to make contributions to a quick recovery from the disaster and to regional development co-existing in harmony with nature.

DATA

Name of the Organization:
NPO Tambo
President:
Shigeki Iwabuchi
Year of the Establishment:
2005
Address:
Aza Arayashiki 29-1, Tajiri-oonuki, Osaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, 989-4302
URL:
http://npotambo.com/

Record of awards

●The Environment Minister Prize, The 9th Japan Water Prize (2007)
●Special Prize, The 13th Promotional Concour for Environment-Friendly Agriculture (2008)
●Honored by United Nations University as a participant, Education for Sustainable Development Greater Sendai Regional Centres of Expertise (ESD Greater Sendai RCE) (2009)
●Offered a letter of appreciation in commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of Nippon Keidanren Committee on Nature Conservation and Nippon Keidanren Nature Conservation Public Trust Fund (2010)
●“Takara no Kuni” Activation Contributing Prize (Osaki City, Miyagi Prefecture) (2011)

(Original text in Japanese was written by Shigeki Iwabuchi)

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