Screen-capture from NHK World
We’re not normally focused on this part of the world, but something like the Japanese tsunami tends to divert your attention. There was no shortage of dramatic aerial footage; some of the most striking, to me, showed the wave chewing through what appeared to be acres upon acres of greenhouses along the eastern coast of Japan. Along with destroying towns, the disaster clearly ravaged some agriculture-intensive areas, and watching the greenhouses crumple as the water touched them was a memorable display of the tsunami’s power.
A post from Big Picture Agriculture takes a … well, a “big picture” look at the possible ag impact of the tsunami. Her bottom line seems to be that this is not an event that will devastate or even significantly harm the country’s agricultural output, though some grain storage facilities may have been affected. (Worth noting: Her post predates today’s revelations that radioactivity could be affecting certain agricultural products.)
Nonetheless, I got curious just what might have been going on in those greenhouses and the surrounding farmland. So I called up our Droppr tool, which is a nifty interface combining Google Maps with our many layers of HarvestChoice crop and other data. HarvestChoice is mostly focused on sub-Saharan Africa and parts of south Asia, but the data behind this Droppr, Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM; http://mapspam.info) is world-wide:
Droppr pointing the tsunami-damaged areas in Japan
While mountains rise up a fairly short distance in from the shore, the darker splotches indicate the coastal areas north and south of Sendai are indeed heavily farmed. While this region might not represent a large portion of Japan’s agricultural output, clearly there are many farmers whose livelihoods will be affected. And just what are they farming?
Sub-national crop production statistics for the Droppr-point site, retrieved from the Spatial Production Statistics Model (SPAM)
Not surprisingly, lots of rice. I recall from my time living in Japan that Japanese have a real cultural pride in growing and consuming their own rice (backed up by government agricultural policy) which means much of the country’s agricultural acreage is turned over to (mostly small-holder) rice farms. Some possible good news is that rice fields are relatively resilient to encursions of salt water, and the planting season was not yet underway. But one has to imagine the damage done by a disaster of this scale is something on a larger scale than your run-of-the-mill salt water encursion.
Interestingly, it’s not all rice. Soybeans, sugarbeet, potato, wheat, even sugarcane are all grown in that region. The usual patterns of Japanese agriculture suggest a portrait of many small or even part-time farmers wiped out by the surge. I wonder if they’ll return to this lifestyle, or if the land post-disaster will have a different future, with agribusiness playing a bigger role or perhaps with the land pulled out of production altogether.
Still curious about just what, if anything, was in those poor greenhouses this time of year — perhaps some rice farmers getting an early start? My web searching has come up empty on the question; with so many other life-and-death concerns in Japan, that’s not surprising. Any notions?
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Interesting, thanks. I wonder how much of that rice land could be characterized as satoyama: http://agro.biodiver.se/2011/03/satoyama-in-peril/
Posted by Luigi Guarino | 21. Mar, 2011, 3:44 pmThanks, Luigi. I don’t happen to recall the term (I lived in Japan 10 years ago, and then in the heart of Tokyo!) but Satoyama so perfectly encapsulates the Japanese approach to nature: the human role in gently defining the environment to maintain an ideal balance.
I’m sure that whole philosophy is challenged by an event like this. Some nature simply can’t be managed. Then aqain, it gives you faith the people will diligently set about the task of reclaiming what’s been lost.
Posted by Jeff Horwich | 21. Mar, 2011, 4:53 pmCould we actually estimate what proportion of Japanese agricultural production will be affected both directly through destruction and excess salts and indirectly through radioactive contamination?
Posted by Melanie Bacou | 21. Mar, 2011, 11:39 pmLittle follow-up post here: http://agro.biodiver.se/2011/03/ground-truthing-spam/
Posted by Luigi | 22. Mar, 2011, 6:09 amAmong all the destruction, the survival of trees and wooded areas was remarkable – try the sliders on the images at http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/03/13/world/asia/satellite-photos-japan-before-and-after-tsunami.html . Many trees have survived while nearby major road bridges and buildings are eliminated. It is noticeable that buildings near rows of trees or woods also appear to survive better. Also that apparently reclaimed pieces of coastline have disappeared.
I am sure there are some important lessons here about using plants to improve the environment and its robustness.
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one asking what was in the greenhouses (mostly looking like plastic) – lettuce?
Posted by Pat Heslop-Harrison | 22. Mar, 2011, 8:33 amLettuce… not a specific Droppr/SPAM category, obviously. Perhaps one of our cropping specialists could say where, if at all, that would show up in the data. (“Fibers?” Doesn’t feel quite right.)
If it was lettuce, that’s a lot of lettuce! Greenhouse-city.
And those NYTimes images are fascinating, Pat. Thanks.
Posted by Jeff Horwich | 22. Mar, 2011, 2:37 pmI am not a cropping specialist, but know that lettuce is not included in “Fibres” or “Other Fibres” in SPAM. It is “burrowed” in “Other Crops”, but this category is highly aggregated and only has data on physical area (no production and no yield).
But, stay tuned for a new version of SPAM later this year (?) and you will find a product called “vegetables” which will include lettuce.
Posted by Ulrike Wood-Sichra | 22. Mar, 2011, 4:17 pmAwesome. I learned a valuable technological tool here. And I’m flattered that you cited my post.
Posted by K. McDonald | 22. Mar, 2011, 5:15 pmAnd now it’s the radiation that’s the problem: http://ilriclippings.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/livelihoods-of-japanese-with-400-year-old-farming-tradition-in-peril-due-to-nuclear-crisis/
Posted by Luigi Guarino | 31. Mar, 2011, 1:29 pm