#ricefarmer

『Day583-330』

Ao and I enjoy playing on the straw bed after finishing the  threshing of rice.  Finally!!!  I look back my village from the other side of the river as I carry the bags of rice.  Yes, we are in the middle of short but beautiful autumn.

脱穀を終え、あおと藁のベッドでしばし戯れる。いやぁ、ついに終わった。明日は籾すりで夜には新米が！

調整乾燥をするため籾を軽トラで運びながらふと、集落をふりかえった。僕らは短いけれど美しい秋の真っ只中にいる。

P.S. 稲刈りにつづき今日も手伝いに来てくれた新潟のお父さん、お母さん、そして昨日来てくれたSくん、ありがとうございました。

Latest for The Wall Street Journal

The American West has been caught in the worst drought in more than a millennium for most of the past two decades.

California farmers sowed 285,000 acres of rice this spring, a 30% drop from the year prior and the lowest since the 1950s, according to a June estimate by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That is the steepest decline for any major California crop this year.

Farmers’ income from rice in California totaled $1 billion in 2021, according to the USDA. Local farmers and officials say they are worried not just about the people who grow the crops, but about the businesses that sell them tractors and seed and store their crops before they are shipped domestically or are exported, primarily to Asia.

In Colusa County, the top rice producer in California, officials project a $2.4 billion hit to the economy due to the drop-off in rice and other crop production, said county supervisor Daurice Kalfsbeek Smith. She said the county anticipates that a rise in unemployment will show up by October. Colusa’s unemployment rate of 7.9% as of July is more than double the national rate of 3.5% and higher than the 5.5% average in other northern Sacramento Valley counties.

Without sufficient water for rice, many farmers are channeling supplies into their almond or walnut orchards, which take years to yield their first crop and can’t be fallowed for a season.

Farmers say they aren’t ready to give up on rice. Many want the option to grow it whenever possible, so they aren’t too dependent on other crops. Researchers predict droughts will continue and even worsen because of climate change, but there are efforts in the state to increase water-storage options for dry years.