Kawakami Ryuichi, another farmer in Niibo-mura, has been cultivating rice the environmentally friendly way for almost 20 years. Now he's especially interested in growing it without plowing the soil. "When I saw that unplowed rice fields have plenty of loaches, killifish and pond snails in the water, I thought, ‘This is the way to go!'"

He leaves his rice fields unplowed after the harvest, and the next year he plants rice seedlings among the submerged stubble remaining from the previous year. Algae, such as oedogonium, grow on the stubble and other plant material, releasing plenty of oxygen into the water and making an ideal environment for killifish, loaches and other creatures toki like to eat.

"Not plowing makes the soil more fertile, and the rice tastes better. There's no need to spend time and energy plowing, and yields are as high," says Kawakami. "It's a win-win situation, a symbiotic relationship: we get better tasting rice, and the toki will have more feeding grounds".

The rice is sold under the label, Toki Hikari, and distributed to city dwellers who support the goal of protecting the birds.