Due to the massive earthquake and tsunami, the radiation leak at the Fukushima nuclear plant affected the local crops also. The last year’s stock is now lying in storage as it is unsafe to consume.
But now the farmers are back with the rice paddies and are this time hoping that the harvests will not have too much radiations to sell. More than 7,000 farmers are now facing such problems in Fukushima.
Many of the last year’s harvests, exceeded the government safety standards due to the aviations released after the tsunami, which was termed as world’s second worst nuclear accident. Rice farming is considered as almost sacred in rural Japan and the government protects with tight restrictions on imports.
Many of the farmers are too close to the nuclear disaster to return to the fields, but still they have to go ahead despite the risk that their harvests might end up being too radiated to ship. The farmers have followed the orders of the government and sprinkled zeolite, which is a pebble like material that traps radioactive cesium. Last year there was no time for such measures as a result, tens thousands of bags of rice from the harvest were too radiated to be sold.
