Growing Asian taonga in Aotearoa

From Japan, all the way to the South Island, rice seeds are taking root – an Asian taonga growing in Aotearoa soil.

Nelson-based Yuki Fukuda has spent the last several months growing rice in her backyard.

It started as a trial – and potentially the only successful rice-growing trial in the South Island, but Fukuda believes there’s no reason why New Zealand shouldn’t grow more of the crop.

Nelson-based Yuki Fukuda with her homegrown rice. Image: Supplied

“Rice consumption-wise, it has grown significantly in the last 60 years or so,” she says, “On average, one person used to eat one kilogram of rice [per year] back in 1961 but now we eat about 11 kilograms per person. We import a huge amount of rice, but nothing’s been grown commercially in New Zealand.” 

New Zealand may not seem the natural choice to grow the grain, but it’s surprisingly feasible. For a start, as Fukuda points out, New Zealand sits on a similar latitude to Japan. In Japan, the farthest north rice can grow is in northern Hokkaido, which sits on the same latitude as south Canterbury.

Fukuda learned about rice as a teenager in Japan. She was volunteering on an organic farm when she met rice farmer Toru Sakawa, who later travelled to New Zealand in 1994 and taught on how to grow rice. Amongst those who learned from him was a Japanese man named Yoshimasa Sakurai. 

Rice isn't grown commercially in New Zealand, but our rice consumption has jumped dramatically. Image: Supplied/Yuki Fukuda

Sakurai turned a 131 square metre plot of land in Kaiwaka, Northland into a patch for rice. He had success with his crop, harvesting an average of 66kg of rice (husks on) annually, for about 30-odd years. Once it was harvested, dehusked, and milled, leaving behind edible rice grains, he would have about 53kg of brown rice.

Fukuda decided to test growing the crop in Nelson. Seeds – plus some advice - from Sakurai were the perfect starting point. 

Last year, she dug a 2x2 square metre plot in her family’s backyard and lined it with a plastic sheet, to prevent water drainage. Then in went soil, horse manure, and water – and finally, in November 2023, the rice seedlings. 

She quickly admits she had a nostalgic image in mind: “In Japan, I remember beautiful scenery of rows and rows of green shoots popping up,” 

“The reality was brutal,” she says with a laugh, “but they grew.” 

The rice started flowering in January and by March, Fukuda was emailing Sakurai, telling him his rice seeds were ready for harvest. 

Fukuda with her backyard plot of rice. Image: Supplied

As harvest time approached, Fukuda hosted “rice open days” to promote backyard rice growing. Around 40 people came by to learn about the project – including some who found a small comfort in the golden rice bowing its heads. 

“Lots of elderly Asian people were really happy to see rice growing in Nelson,” Fukuda says, “It reminded them of where they came from.” 

Rice is a taonga in many Asian cultures, she says. 

“Rice basically means life.” 

“The [rice] straw was used for everything from housing, clothing, things that we used. It was something we could not live without.” 

Byproducts like straw from rice crops can be made into ropes, which are used in making goods like backpacks. Other rice products are used in construction – for example, bricks in the Great Wall of China are held together with sticky rice mortar. 

Rice is more than a food - its byproducts are used for a whole range of things, from architecture to art. Image: Supplied

Rice bran (a byproduct from processing brown rice into white rice) can be used to make soap or turned into rice bran oil or used for preserving food. 

From New Zealand’s agricultural emission perspective, rice crops come with environmental benefits – Fukuda says it has a much lower methane production per kilogram of food produced than beef or dairy farming. 

On top of that, growing rice in New Zealand means less reliance on importing rice: currently, New Zealand imports rice from countries like Thailand and Australia – places facing crop issues due to intensifying impacts from climate change.

For now, a big hurdle is New Zealand has no rice-processing machines, such as rice dehuskers. On Fukuda’s plot, the steps from harvesting to dehusking rice were incredibly time-consuming.

A machine Fukuda and her family put together to help with the threshing process. Image: Supplied

However, she hopes to travel to Japan soon to source machinery. She’s also interested in learning from Japan’s rice farmers, as innovations in the country’s agriculture industry have improved their ability to grow and harvest rice under changing climate.

For now, Fukuda wants to carry on Sakurai’s legacy. He died in April this year, at 86 years old, and Fukuda is determined to keep his rice growing.

“I’d been emailing him several times in March, telling him that lots of people came to have a look at the rice and some wanted to have a go at growing it. So, I’m hopeful he could let go, knowing his rice was growing in Nelson.” 

- Asia Media Centre