Stevia Helping Rice Grow in Tsunami Ravaged Paddies
Stevia Helping Rice Grow in Tsunami Ravaged Paddies ½ºÅ׺ñ¾Æ´Â ½º³ª¹Ì·Î ȲÆóÈµÈ ³íÀÇ ½ÒÀÇÀç¹è¸¦ µµ¿Ô´Ù B&L Corporation has succeeded in producing 5,400 kg of rice per hectare in paddy fields that were inundated by seawater from the tsunami due to the East Japan Earthquake. This cultivation trial was done in Ishinomaki in Miyagi, using an agricultural preparation called Farm-A. Farm-A is a concentrated, matured liquid made only from stevia, a perennial plant indigenous to Paraguay. It contains 0.2% nitrogen, 0.2% phosphate, and 1.1% potassium. Stevia is usually used as a sweetener, but B&L has used a unique fermentation process to increase stevia's effectiveness as an agricultural preparation. Farm-A is the only product made by fermenting stevia.
"Regarding agricultural preparations made from highly processed stevia extract, we first of all sought backing from various universities and other institutions. Among the experts we consulted were Professor Minoru Sato at Tohoku University, Assistant Professor Takahashi at Fukushima Medical University, and Professor Keiko Okamoto at Beppu University. It's generally said that using highly processed stevia makes crops taste sweet, but the biggest feature of Farm-A is that it has strong anti-oxidant properties. In other words, the resulting crops last a long time in storage. Stevia is currently used to cultivate a wide range of crops. And now that a great many paddy fields have suffered salt damage following the East Japan Earthquake, we've done a trial using our stevia preparation, supervised by Professor Okamoto."
The concentration of salt in ordinary paddy fields is 0.1-0.3%. In the paddy fields used for the trial, the salt concentration was 1.3-1.6%, which is so high that rice seedlings would normally die if transplanted there. But simply spraying Farm-A liquid, diluted 700-1,000 times, made it possible to transplant seedlings and harvest rice as usual.
"In the paddy fields with this preparation added, we successfully cultivated rice at a salt concentration of 1.3-1.6%. Professor Okamoto at Beppu University is currently investigating the details. But basically, this method worked because of the very high potassium content of Farm-A. So, by chance, the potassium had a very large effect on the sodium, salt, and chlorine in the fields. The potassium content took up the sodium and salt content, and as a result, the seedlings didn't die even at a seawater concentration of about 1.5%. That's been confirmed."
Paddy fields in the trial district usually yield about 4,800 kg of rice per hectare, but using Farm-A, the harvest was about 5,400 kg. According to B&L, this was due to the bioactive effect of stevia. It's been confirmed that stevia can increase the yield of other crops as well.