I am doing my Japan report on Japanese Agriculture. I chose to do my project on Agriculture because everything else I wanted to do was taken. During my report some of the things you will read about are the stages in growing rice, some of the main fruits and vegetables grown in Japan , how the Japanese substitute for lack of land to grow on. I hope you will enjoy this report.
The first stage in growing rice is repairing the waterways that carry water to the fields. Then when the waterways are repaired the fields are flooded so that they are covered with 7-9 cm of water. After the fields are flooded they are ploughed . After the fields are ploughed the farmers rake them and leave the field for a month . Meanwhile rice seeds are planted in long flat boxs . In a month or so the seeds have turned into young green shoots and they are ready for transplanting. Next the farmer will weed the rice field . The all the water but a couple of cm was drained off.
Today there are machines to do the delicate task of transplanting but still a few people do it by hand. Rice is grown throughout Japan . Rice fields occupy more than 50% of Japans farm land. Rice is the most important crop in Japan. Rice fields cover many hillsides in Rural Japan. Japanese rice have become very clever at carving rice paddies out of hillsides. This technique is called terracing. It gives the farmers room to grow their rice or any other vegetable they are growing. Rice grows well in Japan climate. Heavy rainfall , mild temperatures and long hours of daylight allows farmers in many areas to grow to crops a year.
Rice plants need oxygen to live , like you and me. Then how do they survive under water you ask ?With snorkels! Their leaves make tiny passageways by curling themselves into tubes. These tubes feed the roots with air from above the water line
Most farming villages are on plains along the coast of Japan and sometimes in the mountains. There are 20-60 houses in each of the villages , a few stores and a primary school. The houses in these villages are not in rows they are in bunches.There are small pathes that wind through the villages to near by fields. Farmers own 10-20 tiny fields. The average size of a farm is 1.2 ha. Since most farmers have small fields they can't use large machines. Instead they use small tractors planters , rotary tillers and three wheeled trucks.On large farms farmers can use larger machines like combines.A combine can cut rice plants, thresh them then separating the grain from the husks and then pack the grain rice in a sack all in continues process.Vegetables are a major crop in Japan. A popular vegetable in Japan is the giant white radish which can grow to 1 m. Cabbage,spinach,broccli and 20 other kinds of vegetables are grown in Japan. Fruit is also a major crop in Japan.In this part of my report I will tell you where some of the fruits are grown. Strawberries are grown everywhere. Pears and Apples are grown in the north.Peaches and grapes are grown in central Japan. In the south oranges , mandarin oranges and pineapples are grown.
Livestock is increasingly important in Japanese farming.Pigs and chickens are raised throughout Japan .Beef and dairy cattle are raised mainly in pastures in Kyshu and Hokkaido. Although only 15% of Japans land is farmland it produces a large amount of food.Japan depends on imports for all of its corn, wheat , soybeans and a large amount of meat. Japan gets $30,000,000,000 from exporting food goods.Only9% of Japans workforce works on farms.
Here is a list of The chief products farmed in Japan.Cabbage,hogs,mandarins,milk,potatoes,poultry,eggs, rice,strawberries,tea,and the white radish.
Farming in Japan is very different from farming inCanada because Japan has very little land to farm on so they have to improvise and use terraces. Farming in Japan is a lot of work because most of Japan is hills and when farmers build terraces they erode over time. Even though Japan has limited farmland farmers produce nearly all of Japans food