HYOGO, May 22 — Oriental white storks can be seen searching for food near farmers preparing rice paddies in Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture, a town aiming to coexist with the birds designated in Japan as a specially protected species.
In the Tajima area, which includes Toyooka, farmers, local authorities and an agricultural cooperative work together to implement stork-friendly farming — growing rice with reduced use of pesticides and no use of chemical fertilizers.
They also adopt other environment-friendly measures including winter flooding — keeping irrigation water in rice fields during winter to maintain biodiversity — and the use of organic fertilizers.
Biotopes are developed using fallow fields to provide a habitat for aquatic organisms, which the storks feed on.
According to JA Tajima, a local farm coop, roughly 500 hectares of rice paddies in Toyooka are dedicated to this farming method.
Rice harvested from the paddies are marketed under the brand of Stork Nurturing Rice.
The rice is used in school lunches at 31 elementary and junior high schools in the city since 2007.
An oriental white stork searches for food on a rice paddy in Toyooka, Hyogo Prefecture, as a farmer prepares the field for rice planting.