Erik van Berkum

Japanese rebuilding horticulture after tsunami

Who doesn’t remember the horrible pictures and videos of the earthquakes and the follow up tsunami in Tohoku Japan in March 2011? The Tohoku earthquake, as the Japanese call it and tsunami that followed left around 16,000 people dead and many more displaced without housing or jobs to go to. The Japanese started immediately making plans for rebuilding the region there is still a lot to do, but they are going strong.

Clean up teams are still working in the area collecting rubbish. The total area that has to be cleaned up is around 23,600 Ha which is a little less than 20% of total area of the Netherlands. This is happening quite efficiently. It’s not only the visible things that need to be cleaned up also the soil is quite contaminated with the salty water from the sea and it’s not possible to grow rice or strawberries on these soils before they are cleaned up.

As there is quite a lot of strawberry production in Yamamoto-cho in Miyagi, the Japanese government decided to build a new research station called High-tech Professional Research Facility. Advanced research for tomatoes and strawberries are taking place in this modern greenhouse of 7,200 m2. Several national and public research institutes, universities and private companies have formed a consortium to conduct research together. Research goals for 2017 are to improve production and quality of the products, reduce production costs and improve profit of farm management. The first phase of the greenhouse construction was done by one of the Japanese leading greenhouse builders Ishiguro Nozai who not only built the greenhouse but also supplied the irrigation, cooling and heating systems. The computer controls for this project were delivered by Hoogendoorn which installed an iSii computer for complete control of the greenhouse.

The Japanese users are very happy with the system as it is easy to operate and Ishiguro has developed some very handy visualizations so a good understanding of all the processes going on in the greenhouse is easily achieved.

The projected was inaugurated by the Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, see picture

The following photos give an impression of the greenhouse constructed by Ishiguro

For more information:
Erik van Berkum
erik@maripositas.org

Publication date: Mon 13 Aug 2012