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On his six-hectare farm in the village of Keisen, on
Japan's Kyushu island, Takao Furuno, 61, grows rice
and wheat without chemicals.
He rediscovered an ancient rice-growing practice involving
the use of ducks.
The birds, raised on the farm, patrol the paddy fields
and feed on insects and weeds, without touching the
plants. Their wading oxygenates the water and stirs
up the soil. Their droppings are a natural fertiliser.
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Furuno has cut production costs and boosted output by about
a third compared with his neighbours, who use chemical fertilisers.
He sells the ducks also.
Some 10,000 Japanese farmers have purchased The
Power of Duck, the book he published in 2000. In 2011,
the technique was successfully tried out in Camargue, southern
France.
The trend in rice cultivation in Japan, which provides a
livelihood for 1.4 million families, is, however, towards
larger farms and more intensive production.
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