Heavy rainfall last week in the city of Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, has dealt a severe blow to local agriculture. Fields that had recently begun to recover from the damage caused by the Jan. 1 quake have been submerged by torrential downpours.
Affected farmers expressed their anguish, wondering whether they have no choice but to give up, saying the damage this time was beyond comparison to the earthquake.
Tetsuya Ike, a 41-year-old farmer in the city's Oya district, has been involved in rice cultivation for about a decade. Following the earthquake, which damaged irrigation canals, he installed temporary pumps in May. He meticulously managed water flow into each rice paddy, finally succeeding in planting from late May to early June.
Read more at The Japan Times.