‘To see toki fly in the sky again’
Rice farmers are working with environmentalists to preserve the rare Japanese crested ibises called Toki.
IN an underground commercial space at JR Tokyo Station recently, a shop selling onigiri rice balls was transformed for a limited time into a specialty retailer of onigiri made of rice from Sado, Niigata Prefecture.
Sado Island is known for its toki – Japanese crested ibises – and the brand of koshihikari rice planted on it is called Toki to Kurasu Sato (Living in Harmony with Toki). On that first day of the promotion, the shop recorded its highest sales yet as commuter after commuter bought the special onigiri.
Rice produced on Sado Island is highly rated, and has been ranked Special A by the Japan Grain Inspection Association for 13 consecutive years. Despite this, however, the Sado brand was for a long time less popular than rice from Uonuma, which lies in the same prefecture as Sado, Niigata. In fact, there was no branding in many cases, with Sado rice simply being sold as “Niigata Prefecture rice”.
What raised the profile of Sado rice and created its own brand is the “Toki to Kurasu Sato” rice certification system, or the Toki Brand Rice Certification Initiative, which is now in its 10th year.
Takayuki Nishimaki, 41, agricultural policy section chief of the Sado municipal government, says that the certification system is “peculiar to Sado, being the only one aimed at balancing agricultural promotion with environmental regeneration”.
The Toki, a crested ibis species, had become extinct in Japan. But a pair of them presented to Japan by China in 1999 successfully bred on Sado, the last place these Japanese crested ibises had lived.
Attention then was focused on conserving rice fields that, in the process of realising the crested ibises’ return to the wild, could become feeding grounds where they could hunt for such creatures as pond loaches, frogs and insects.
The certification system, which was launched by the city in 2008, calls on farmers to reduce the amount of agricultural chemicals and fertilisers they use to less than half the usual amounts, and also to take part in biannual research on living creatures in the padi fields.
Farmers are also called on to tackle at least one of two projects: to fill fields with water even in winter; or to improve their paddies so that creatures can continue to live in them.
The first release of the offspring of that first crested ibis pair was conducted in September that year, 2008, aiming for their successful return to the wild.
Initially, there was anxiety among farmers that their crop yields would decline. But in 2017, the area for the certified rice crops increased to 1,180ha, accounting for 23.7% of the total area for staple rice crops in the city.
Shinichiro Saito, 56, a padi farmer who has been engaged in promoting such agricultural methods as restricting the use of agricultural chemicals to help foster biodiversity since the early days of the project, says in retrospect: “I launched this farming method together with my predecessors, who said they ‘wanted to see toki fly in the sky again’.
“That the number of ibises surviving in the wild has increased to as many as 300 is one of the results brought about through the supportive efforts of those in farming.”
As a result of the producers’ efforts, in 2011, the “Sado’s Satoyama in Harmony with Japanese Crested Ibis” system was designated as one of the Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation. Satoyama refers roughly to rural forests near inhabited areas.
To further enhance the brand power of Sado-produced rice, the Japanese Agricultural Cooperatives in Sado, or JA Sado, has been conducting promotional campaigns, such as transporting Sado-grown rice in a truck decorated with an image of a crested ibis. The rice used at the onigiri shop in JR Tokyo Station was provided by JA Sado.
“The certified rice has served as a driving force to promote safe rice production in Sado,” says Manabu Watanabe, 48, chief of JA Sado’s rice sales section.
“Also, it serves as a chance to re-examine farming methods that have existed for a long time.”
Sado is no exception to the ageing of farming households and the shortage of successors.
“The environment the crested ibis inhabits cannot be protected without a lot of labour and time,” Saito the farmer says.
“We want to share with consumers the farming methods we acquired in the process of realising the toki’s return to the wild.” Last year and again this year, artwork was created in Saito’s paddy depicting a flying crested ibis.
Between crested ibises released into the wild and those born in the wild, the number confirmed alive has increased to an estimated 300.
Citizens in Sado have contributed significantly to creating an environment the birds can inhabit, the nature office says. With the increase in the number of crested ibises surviving in the wild, the ministry will aim to promote regional revitalisation by switching from “conservation” to “utilisation” of the birds. It plans to begin construction of an ibis observation facility temporarily named “Toki no Terasu” (Toki terrace) on Sado later this year with completion scheduled for spring 2019. – The Japan News/Asia News Network