Field work

摘要

Mutsuo banba's rice farm in Ishi-kawa prefecture, on the north-west coast of Japan's main island, is a mosaic of plots, many separated by land belonging to others. In the season, Mr Banba, a full-time farmer, takes care to water his rice every day. Others, he says disapprovingly, do not. These part-time farmers, he complains, "stay inside with their air-conditioning, while their rice dries out and cracks". This angers him, because their harvest is mixed with his when the local co-op picks up the crop for sale.