140 x 90 meters is "large-scale" rice ranching

[Taro Toporific]

'BLACK MARKET' RICE: Free way
Asahi Shimbun, Japan -June 17
... The paddies are each 140 meters by 90 meters-unusually large for Japan, where rice is grown even in fields ``as narrow as a cat's forehead.''. ...... Rice production and sales were heavily regulated and subsidized in those years under the Staple Food Control Law of 1942.
"Ogata, with its large-scale farming, is a model for the future,'' the official added...."It means Japan's farm industry finally found a model, as there was no other prospect ...."

Sheeee-it. These guys just don't get it. To compete in the world market, either they have to go to 100% organic hand-raised rice or they need fields at least 1,400 meters by 900 meters. How they hell do they think they can compete with rice sown from airplanes in fields kilometers in length? By superior Japanese "taste": not hardly. I trick my local rice farmers into eating Calf. Rose brand all the time in Shikoku. Sheesh.

[Big Booger]

The type of planting they do here is a joke. They use "tractors" that look like a mix between a swamp buggy and a riding lawnmower. They plant in these tiny plots with ditches all around.

Back in Indiana, I used to help every summer planting corn, soybeans, and so on. We'd use a 30 foot to 40 foot disk to plow and a similar sized planter to plant. Some of the fields here are about the size of the disk we used. I always get a kick out of that.

I almost died when I saw a combine here for the first time.. It was cute.. Most of the farmers where I live don't believe me when I tell them that on some fields we used to plant you could look in any direction and still see field.. like being out on the ocean.

As for the rice being "different" in taste, texture and quality, I think actually the California rice might be better.. due to better quality of water, air, and so on.. When I walk my dog in the evening I can see how filthy the ditches become that feed into the rice fields.. I've wondered why they don't filter that water... it is disgusting, I've seen everything from batteries to blowup dolls in those ditches...

I do think the method for planting the rice is interesting, at least it was the first time I did it. But it seems a bit more involved than corn crop. Having to seed those trays in the soil, then set them out to sprout, then taking the trays, loading them on a tractor and planting them..

I prefer to plow the field, fill the grain bins on the planter with seed and fertilizer, hop on the tractor and go to town... all in one go.