How did the Fukushima nuclear disaster affect high-graft pear farmers?

Text / Shih Chao-hsiang

Two years after the March 11, 2011 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in Japan, the country is facing unprecedented post-disaster cleanup difficulties. Experts estimate that the decontamination costs for the areas surrounding the nuclear plant alone, plus compensation for the affected households, will reach as high as 400 billion US dollars; and the psychological trauma suffered by residents worried about contamination and forced to evacuate their homes cannot be made up for by money. According to Japanese police statistics, as of March 8, the total death toll from the 311 earthquake disaster was 15,881, with 2,668 missing, and 2,303 deaths from illness or suicide caused by long-term evacuation. After the disaster, about 470,000 people evacuated their homes, and to this day 315,000 people are still sheltering in temporary housing.

Fukushima Prefecture is still carrying out radiation decontamination work. The 20 km area around the nuclear plant is all a restricted zone, forcing more than 100,000 people to evacuate their homes; residents in even more distant areas also worry that radiation will affect their health, and have no choice but to relocate elsewhere to settle down. Local agricultural and fishery products have been tested and shown to be safe, yet they still attract few buyers; the tourism industry has also failed to recover, with visits to pick-your-own orchards dropping by three-quarters compared with before the earthquake disaster.

After the nuclear disaster, Japanese pear scions declined, so Chinese pear scions were imported

The Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, thousands of miles away, also dealt a heavy blow to the economy of Dongshi. In the mountain city area of Taichung City, grafting top-grafted pears is the main agricultural economic activity, with about 4,000 hectares currently used for grafting Asian pears, and every year large quantities of pear scions need to be imported from Japan. The main production areas of Japanese pear scions happen to be in Fukushima, Niigata, Akita and other areas in and near the nuclear disaster zone.

After the March 11 Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster in Japan, farmers in the mountain city area of Taichung City began to worry about whether this year's pear scions could be imported, and whether imported pear scions would have radiation contamination problems.

At the end of 2011, according to Japanese testing, local agricultural and fishery products were safe and could be exported, but farmers in Dongshi were bitterly waiting for Japanese pear scions. Rumor had it that the weather in Japan was extremely abnormal, with heavy snow, and farmers were unwilling to go out to collect pear scions. In the end, Taiwanese buyers had to go into the fields themselves to collect them, and only managed to gather a small quantity of pear scions.

With Japanese pear scions still unavailable, farmers could only scramble to buy small quantities of Japanese pear scions, and the price more than doubled; finally, to prevent disputes, the amount each farmer could purchase was limited.

At the end of 2012, to solve the problem of insufficient Japanese pear scions, diversify the sources of pear scions and lower costs, the Dongshi District Farmers' Association imported two new varieties of pear scions from the Qingdao area of mainland China, "Nanshui pear" and "Fengshui pear," and encouraged farmers in the production and marketing groups to try grafting them.

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In terms of price: a box of Japanese Fengshui pear scions weighing ten kilograms costs 11,000 yuan, while Chinese Fengshui pear scions cost 6,500 yuan. The Nanshui pear variety does not exist in Japan; it was originally priced at 8,000 yuan per box, but to promote the new variety it was set at 6,500 yuan per box. Chinese pear scions cost half as much as Japanese pear scions.

In terms of the current fruit-setting rate: they gradually bloomed and set fruit in mid-January. Chinese pear scions showed signs of sprouting and budding before grafting, and began consuming their own nutrients, affecting fruit set. The average fruit-setting rate for grafted Japanese pear scions was 60 percent, only 40 percent for Nanshui pear, and 50 percent for Chinese Fengshui pear.

A farmer said: "This year the farmers have basically gambled! Japanese pear scions cost more than double those from China, and Japan also bans Taiwanese pears from being shipped back, so now that Chinese pear scions are cheaper and legally imported, let's just try planting them!"

Wang Chang-min, office director for Councilor Tsai Cheng-kui, said: "'Nanshui pear' is not suited to the local environment. Not only is the grafting success rate low, but the fruit is much smaller than Japan's 'Fengshui pear,' and its appearance is poor."

The pear harvest season is almost here! The market acceptance of the new varieties remains to be tested. No matter what happens, Taiwanese farmers always strive to find a way out, while the government seems to care only about whether the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant can keep being built.