2021 Volume 2021 Issue 8 Pages 97-108
The accident at the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in March 2011 caused radioactive substances to fall onto pastures and other areas. The National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), in cooperation with the relevant prefecture governments and public research institutes, have worked on the development of technologies to ensure the safety of animal feed. Renovation of grasslands with higher soil exchangeable potassium mass-fraction (30-40 mg-K 2 O/100 g dry soil) has proved effective in reducing the concentration of radioactive cesium (RCs) in grass. It was shown that the cultivation of forage crops, such as corn and Italian ryegrass, in compliance with compost application standards, which had been practiced by farmers even before the accident, produces feeds with sufficiently low levels of RCs. This paper also describes other measures to reduce RCs the migration into forage rice and on the use of contaminated compost. Forage production, is based on many types of crops, and the production base varies from grassland, to farmland, to paddy fields, etc., in varying locations and with different soil conditions. Therefore, there are still some issues that have not been solved, and long-term efforts will be necessary in the future.
