Beauty doesn’t pay the bills.
The rice terraces of Iwakubi, Sado exemplify this challenge. In 2011, Sado Island became the first region in Japan to be designated by the FAO as a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS). The rice terraces of Iwakubi soon came to symbolize Sado’s breathtakingly beautiful agricultural system on the international stage. Since this designation, more visitors have been making the trip up the narrow winding mountain road to admire the terraces and ocean beyond. However, mere admiration doesn’t pay; the number of paddies under cultivation continues to decrease as more farmers retire and those that remain struggle to make ends meet.
At 69, farmer and rice terrace organizer, Oishi-san is all too familiar with this challenge. As he explains, terraced rice paddies take 1.5 times more work to cultivate than rice paddies on plains and average only sixty percent the yields. Moreover, as you go higher up the mountain, yields further decrease. With current rice prices, terraced rice farmers like himself can’t break even. Oishi-san often draws from his pension payments to support the upkeep of the landscape.
To help combat these challenges, Oishi-san has taken the lead both in Iwakubi and the rice terrace community of Sado Island. He works to increase farmer revenue by selling the rice produced on terraces directly to consumers and companies instead of going through the Japanese Agriculture Cooperative where most rice farmers sell their rice. In addition, he’s also involved in youth development and education around rice terraces. His office (岩首談儀所 ) at the base of the rice terraces is housed in an elementary school which was abandoned nearly 15 years ago when the local youth population became too small to support the school. While it no longer serves as a space for educating young children, college students come to stay in the school and learn about rice-growing and local ecology.
Grassroots initiatives like these student visits, as well as government funds, help offset material costs and supplies for Oishi-san’s work, and the national rural development squad program (地域おこし協力隊) even funds a temporary staff person. However, none of this support goes directly to Oishi-san, who volunteers his time to support the terraces.
So, where does Oishi-san find motivation to do this work and continue to grow rice? His “soul” (ソール). He can’t give up on his and his communities’ ancestors who have grown rice in mountainous Iwakubi for 400 years.