KESENNUMA, Miyagi Prefecture--The first tomato harvest has started at a hydroponic greenhouse here on a site that was once covered with tsunami debris.
KESENNUMA, Miyagi Prefecture--The first tomato harvest has started at a hydroponic greenhouse here on a site that was once covered with tsunami debris. The tomatoes are ripening in 125 rows of plants at the 2-hectare Sun Fresh Koizumi Farm in the southern part of Kesennuma city. Each row is about 100 meters long, giving the greenhouse the look of an indoor forest of tomato plants. Four to five tons of tomatoes from the farm are expected to be shipped daily. Kesennuma is known for its agriculture and fishery industries. But after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami struck the Tohoku region on March 11, 2011, the city became associated with disaster. The area in the Koizumi district where the tomatoes are now growing used to be a rice field. The tsunami destroyed that field, and the area later became a processing site for the mountains of debris from the disaster. After the land was cleaned up and the farm was built, the soilless greenhouse began operations in September this year. “I want to turn this place into the center of the agricultural industry that is just as thriving as the fishery sector,” said Mamoru Oikawa, 54, head of the farm.