Seeking Fukuoka's One Straw Rice

Hello, I am searching for the strains of rice developed by Mr Masanobu Fukuoka author of the 'One Straw Revolution'. He named these 3 strains of rice the 'Happy Hills' rice or 'Fukuoka' rice as Fukuoka means Happy Hills, roughly translated.

From what I have read they were some of the most productive strains of rice on earth. I had heard once before that someone had them for distribution but when I tried to locate them on the net recently I could find no mention of them and I learnt that in his later years Mr Fukuoka had retired from farming and had lost the seed himself. I knew that he had spread them round and hope that some one out there might still have them. Would anyone out there know of anyone who might still have them. I am interested in growing them here in Thailand, I am only working on a very small scale. I would just like to do my little bit to keep them going and spread them around. I hope that someone can help. Cheers Paul

Larry Korn, the editor lived with Masanobu and would probably have connections. check facebook/twitter.

Hi, there,  Sorry I do not know of a source for Fukuoka-sensei's rice seed.  As far as I know he did not share it and never made it available widely.  He had a nasty encounter in the 1980's with the local agricultural co-op who didn't want him to plant it because they thought it might mess up their latest seed types.  If I do hear that some of his rice is available I will be sure to post a message.

Larry Korn

hey paul,

i just stumbled across this old post of yours while digging around the forums.  i was on a similar search for fukuoka's rice last year and happened upon a group at kyoto university that actively promotes and publishes the works of fukuoka.  a week later i had the 'happy hill'.

i'd like to send you some myself but my attempts last year ended in failure and i've only enough to make another go of it this year.  so send me a pm and i'll give you his email address.  you can also buy books by fukuoka that you probably won't find anywhere else.

good luck.  and if you happen to have a successful harvest using his dryland techniques i'd love to hear about it!

I am using rice varieties of hayayuki, yukihikari and matsumae. If you have only a few seeds of Happy Hill it is possible to amplify them using the technique of bucket growing as explained in the rice growing manual of Linda and Takeshi Akaogi: I started with just 10 seeds each and germinated 5 seeds. The plants are producing hundreds of grains each.

http://www.sare.org/MySare/ProjectReport.aspx?do=viewRept&pn=FNE08-624&y=2009&t=1

Would love to get just a few seeds of Happy Hill to try them in the Bluegrass Sustainable Agriculture Project in Rhode Island, USA. Would be happy to trade some rice seed.

PKile

Paul, came across this news article today and thought you might be interested. This older guy from china got rice seeds from his sister and has been growing them in an empty lot in ontario.
http://www.windsorstar.com/Windsor+senior+grows+rice+empty/3457827/story.html

http://www.windsorstar.com/Video+Growing+rice+Windsor/3457852/story.html

Kathryn,
Thank you for this story of Qinsi Yu growing rice in canada. From his video, looks like he used a bucket method of growing rice. Just harvested mine and plan on planting the seed Fukuoka style over the heads of my winter wheat crop that just went in Fukuoka clay ball method to help prepare the soil.
Paul

Hi,

I can see it has been quite a while since this thread was active, but if anyone currently knows how to get my hands on some of the strains Fukuoka was cultivating I would be very grateful for some help.

The seeds would be used to experiment and if successful introduced within our community located up the highlands of Lombok, NTB, Indonesia.

All the best
// Carl

I have some seeds of Happy Hill rice available..very limited may be around 30-40 seeds, so can send each one 10 seeds maximum. Let me know if anyone would be interested.

It is growing in my back yard - http://farming-experiments.blogspot.in/2016/05/happy-hill-rice-2016-monsoon.html


Regards,
Nandan

Nandakumar Palaparambil wrote:I have some seeds of Happy Hill rice available..very limited may be around 30-40 seeds, so can send each one 10 seeds maximum. Let me know if anyone would be interested.

It is growing in my back yard - http://farming-experiments.blogspot.in/2016/05/happy-hill-rice-2016-monsoon.html


Regards,
Nandan

Good evening, Nandan!

I am here in a high desert of California. I would love and appreciate 10 seeds of the Happy Hill! I am a huge fan of Fukuoka's work and want to start making pellets to sow in the desert here with family and bring the rains back! Right now I cultivate about 1000 sq/ft of various vegetables. I am eager to get some rice going. Please feel free to email me at luketspaulding@outlook.com and we can talk shipping and any gift I may have in return :]

Much blessings,

Luke

Hi Luke,

Has replied to you over email, will send you 15 seeds, no need of shipment/gifts, it is quite cheap to send 15 seeds.

Send me some seeds if you are able to get some harvest, just to have a backup.


Regards,
Nandan

Hi I’d like to know if you could harvest more of the happy hills seeds! I’d also like to know if we can grow them in south east ohio?

I lost those precious seeds...Those seeds does not germinate after 3-4 months, so I used to keep planting it, immediately after harvest. Once that was broken, so I left with some seeds which does not germinate. There are some people succeeded in germinating old seeds using hydrogen peroxide, sugar solution, Gibberlic acid etc...if you can find some experts to help you with this, I can send 10 seeds. Please copy your reply to p_k_nandanan@yahoo.com also


Regards,
Nandan

Hi Maria, Hi Nandakumar from India, Hi Luket from California

I'm Clem from agrobuti.it (Italy), I would like to ask you some request. I had tested some upland rice (loto) in the years 2014-2016, here a photo https://www.agrobuti.it/foto/ortomilpa/riso15-08-12.jpg
 then I exchanged my result few seeds with a gui in Indiana state in Usa, for Duborskian rice, but after one year, all my rice seeds seems nont more germinable. So regarding your experience, the upland rice seeds (any rice in general) get lost thei germination power just after 1 year?
2) Do you have any very few seeds of Happy Hill rice (I was in Japan in 2020, but the son of Fukuoka had lost his precious Happy Hill upland rice) or any other upland-rice from Laos, Yunnan, Burma, etc, or any other part of the world to re-try the test on a dry land? I like to test it, and if I will get also a litte some seeds, I'm ready to send you back some of it. Let me know at this email: info@agrobuti.it  thanks for any reply

Nice to hear about your experiments with upland rice. Yes, in my experience also, rice seeds loose viability after few months, duration depends on the variety. In my case, happy hill rice seeds also loose viability after 1 or 2 months in my climate, so my 2016 seeds were lost but I was lucky to get some more seeds from Japan. Now a days, I keep the rice seeds in refrigerator so it does not loose its germination power.

Now a days sending seeds to other countries are restricted, so sending by post won't be possible. If some persons are travelling to this part of world, I can give with them the seeds and they have to carry it at their own risk


Regards,
Nandan