thatch fertilizers

In the past, the usage of thatch was not just for the roofs.  It was used as a fertilizer for the fields, as a fuel for stove, and as a feed for domestic animals.  The thatch that aged and replaced by newer thatch can be thrown into the field as a fertilizers.  But the stoves do not use plant materials anymore, there are not as many domestic animals as there used to be, and fertilizers can be purchased.  Along with the disappearance of the thatched roofs, the thatch fields have disappeared from the landscapes.

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In Iya, people still use the thatches as fertilizers.  The picture above is the traditional methods people stock the thatch, called koe-guro, for natural decomposition to let the thatch break down a bit.  These cone-shaped thatch piles are seen everywhere in Iya.  In this condition, these thatches are stocked for sometimes several years.

Part of the reason the thatch are still being used as fertilizers in Iya is because local farmers are not thinking of marketing the agricultural products.  Agriculture in Iya was, and is, done on steep slopes unfit for making rice paddies, and the so called "regional specialty" are the buckwheats, which usually indicates that the soil is poor.  The idea of selling the agricultural products are rather foreign to people in Iya.

But these thatches are actually very good as a fertilizers.  Compared to the fertilizers sold in markets, these thatches will create larger particles in the soil, making more empty spaces in the soil that would hold water and let air pass through.  On top of that, covering the ground with chopped thatch has an effect of mulching the ground, absorbing the raindrops and prevents the erosion.  In places like Iya, where the fields are on the steep slopes, erosion preventions perhaps matter more than adding the nutrition to the ground.

But harvesting the thatch is quite a labor.  It certainly is easier to just simply buy fertilizers.  So, as someone who's objective is to preserve the thatch field/grassland, it may be a good idea to try to sell the thatch to the farmers.  Organic farming would add the values of the agricultural products.  If it is done well enough, perhaps the thatch may even revive the local agriculture.