Went and visited a local farmer yesterday who grows organically, and plants field rice rather than rice grown in a paddy. He lives on top of a hill and his property does not have the water to grow in a paddy. He grows about 1 tan of field rice instead. Right now one of his three fields is in barley. The other two are fallow right now, but after he harvests the barley, he will put in rice. He rotates his crops among the three fields, and though he doesn't grow enough grain to supply all of his needs, he goes a long way to being self sufficient.
He says that field rice is a little bit more difficult to grow, because there are more weeds, so given the same area, field rice is more work than paddy rice. He has some great ideas about crop rotation and planting. I will go back soon to catch up on his barley progress and see how he's doing personally.
Funny, I had visited his house before unknowingly. I was visiting the woman next door to him who has a small Omotokyo temple. Most of the surrounding property is in crops.
I am now in the process of trying to borrow a nearby field to experiment with growing field rice.
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