Japan has long enjoyed peace and prosperity as "the land of vigorous
rice plants," the
result of the cumulative wisdom of its traditional lifestyle. Japan is
located in a subtropical zone
with plentiful precipitation year around. It's soil is volcanic,
containing a substantial volume of
water, which tends to experience mud slides. Its topography is mountainous
and rain water
gushes from the land into both the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean. Land
left fallow may
not retain rainwater, resulting in disastrous mud slides. Mud slides into
rivers raise the bottom
of these rivers which in turn cause regional floods, a disaster for those
living downstream.
Thus, it is very important to maintain and manage agricultural fields
located on mountain
hillsides. Tree plantation is particularly crucial in preserving the land's
capacity to store water.
Rice paddies located in valleys not only serve rice production but also act
as reservoirs. Rice
planting operations have, in fact, become an inadvertent water resource
management tool.
Terrace rice fields may appear to be inefficient agriculture. Yet, these
practices have played a
valuable role in the maintenance and distribution of water resources as well
as preventing the
undesirable transfer of mud and sand.
Japanese practitioners of agriculture and forestry have instinctively
undertaken this
invaluable role, without strategic planning, for many centuries, because
it is not only useful to
their life but also indispensable to the security of the people living in a
drainage basin. This is
Japanese wisdom resulting from and built on a traditional way of life. Yet
today , this wisdom
and resulting values are about to be dumped. It should be emphasized again
that the value of
agriculture and forestry is not limited to its economic production .
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