Studies on soils of Peaty paddy fields I

Rice is the main crop grown in Japan, approximately three million hectares or half of the total arable land being planted to rice. However, not less than 20 percent of the rice fields is estimated of so called “Akiochi” type, which means autumn-decline in English. It has been observed that these low productive paddy soils may be divided roughly into two types, one of which is the soil of well-drained, so called “degraded” paddy field, and the other is the soil of ill-drained one with too much organic matter, humus, in the soil.