HYOGO, Aug 25 (News On Japan) –
Rice paddies in Hyogo Prefecture are coming into harvest with a brand new menace on their margins: dense mats of the designated invasive species recognized in Japan as Nagaetsurunogeitou. Often described as one of many world’s worst invasive crops, the aquatic weed invades irrigation ponds and canals, saps vitamins, and wraps round rice stems, hindering progress.
Officials and farmers say the plant is very adaptable, thriving each in water and on land and exhibiting robust resistance to drying.
The weed’s explosive unfold has clogged drainage pumps and at instances compelled large-scale removing by boat. As of July, stories of Nagaetsurunogeitou had expanded to 29 prefectures, straining native responses. In southern Hyogo, a reservoir supplying water to about 180 hectares of paddies has change into a frontline. Crews lay light-blocking sheets throughout infested surfaces to suppress progress, however shoots push by tiny gaps inside a month, turning weed management right into a relentless cat-and-mouse battle.
A separate designated invasive species is threatening the prefecture’s beloved cherry timber. At Ishitani Park in Hyogo—well-known for spring blossoms—protecting netting now wraps the bases of trunks to maintain out the red-necked longhorn beetle, an insect native to components of China and elsewhere. Once the larvae bore in, they hole the inside, weakening timber to the purpose that felling stands out as the solely possibility to stop collapse. The beetle’s prolific copy, with females laying roughly 500 to as many as 1,000 eggs, is accelerating the unfold.
In August, Hyogo Prefecture established a Special Invasive Species Task Force to map the increasing distribution of those pests and step up measures. With dangers starting from lowered rice yields to the lack of cherry timber in public areas, authorities are urging swift, sustained efforts to include additional harm to agriculture, ecosystems, and each day life.
Source: YOMIURI