The Agri-Reconstruction Project and Rapeseed Project for Restoring Tsunami-Salt- Damaged Farmland After the GEJE – An Institutional Effort - Post-Tsunami Hazard: Reconstruction and Restoration - page 288

the pine coastal forest had been leveled to the ground and the rice fi elds engulfed in
mud, thus requiring restoration.
Prior to the submission of the project proposal to the JST, a number of surveys
were implemented in coordination with Miyagi Prefectural research institutes, the
agricultural technology extension offi ce, farmer's cooperative staff and other
partners.
The project objectives included soil surveys of the affected farmlands and selection
of Brassicaceae plants suitable for the level of salt damage. Moreover, it included
sowing these seeds on the damaged land, planting yellow rapeseed fl owers to
improve the landscape and to symbolize the agricultural revival and eco-energy
development. Oil was obtained from the harvested rapeseed to produce biodiesel fuel.
This fuel is used to operate machinery for the restoration of the affected areas, and
run school buses for children living in disaster-stricken communities (Nakai 2012 ).
It was considered that the construction of a regional autonomous energy supply
system making use of rapeseed would play a useful role in the restoration of the
disaster-affected areas (Fig. 18.1 ).
As a complementary objective, it was hoped that through the cultivation of rape-
seed local farmers would be encouraged to resume farming at the earliest possible
time, as this would lead on to the revival of the farming economy.
To implement the project, the affected farmland in Miyagi Prefecture was divided
up into a 1 km 2 mesh. Soil surveys were then carried out at 344 locations. Cultivation
tests conducted using Brassicaceae plants showed that the seeds were unable to
germinate in the tsunami mud layer. Transplanted seedlings also withered and died.
Fig. 18.1 Concepts of rapeseed (Nano-hana) project for restoring tsunami-salt-damaged
farmland