Farmland with Golden Apple Snails
Duck farming is a method in which ducks are released in the rice paddy at rice-planting season. The ducks eat weeds and pests. Their droppings become nutrition, and the ducks swimming in the paddy cultivates mud which helps the rice to grow.
On the other hand, pond snail farming is a method which takes advantage of the ecology of golden apple snails, a large kind of pond snails. The golden apple snails are pests which eat young, newly-planted rice plants. With this method, water is withdrawn from the rice paddy for about 20 days after planting. Since golden apple snails prefer young tender plants, they do not eat the 20-day old rice plants, but eat the younger weed that sprout after the rice plants.
Concerned with his own health, Kimura ultimately chose natural farming, but it is also preferable from the consumer’s point of view. His rice is certified as “100 percent Echo Yamaguchi” (agricultural products grown without chemical pesticides nor artificial fertilizers). Kimura’s rice is used for school lunches in Yamaguchi prefecture, and nourishes growing children.