OTAKI, Chiba Prefecture--To revive abandoned farmland, Otaki town officials have turned to unorthodox crops that can survive in barren terrain and harsh weather while withstanding pesky animals.

Its edible solutions have taken the form of two flowers--roselle and rose—and a cactus.

The town, east of Tokyo, started the regional revitalization project in 2022 with the main focus on making use of the increasing number of agricultural zones left vacant by aging farmers.

The initiative’s members include a seed company and a former Chiba prefectural official with experience in farming policy.

The project faced challenges in finding edible plants that are hardy enough to grow in the town’s poorly drained clay.

The town also wanted the plants to have few competing production areas around Japan.

The municipal government specifically picked out the roselle--a type of hibiscus--in 2023 as the first step toward nurturing a new local specialty.

The calyx surrounding roselle petals becomes suitable for consumption after its white flowers finish blooming. It is processed into tea, jam and jelly for use in confectionery and other purposes.

Responding to the municipality’s call for cooperation, 14 residents produced roselle mainly in their own fields on a trial basis.

The finished roselle in the tests boasted a distinctly sour taste overall, which reduced concerns that wild boars or muntjac deer would devour the plants.

This success gave the project a burst of momentum, with 17 people planting roselle in fiscal 2024 and 23 this fiscal year.

“We have advanced from the trial culturing stage to the popularization phase,” said a town representative.

ROSE FOR SODA, ICE CREAM

Otaki town chose an edible rose variety noted for its distinctive taste and aroma in 2024 in the second round of its agricultural initiative.

The decision was made after a typhoon on the Boso Peninsula in 2019 destroyed the irrigation system dating to the early Meiji Era (1868-1912).

Desperate to reuse dried-up rice paddies, the local government selected the rose in accordance with the same screening standards for the roselle.

The municipality leased up to 3,400 square meters of fallow paddies for the cultivation of roses by residents in the neighborhood.

As the rose thorns kept wild animals away, the petal harvest reached 409 kilograms this past summer, the second year of the rose-raising program.

Both the roselle and rose are on track for full-fledged commercialization.

The roselle has been well accepted at the roadside station Takeyura no Sato Otaki within Otaki.

Dried roselle berries can be used to brew hibiscus tea at the rest area, while a jam product with a subtle tartness and a sweetness reminiscent of candy apples is available.

Homemade roselle cookies from a nearby cafe are also on sale, fashioned from ingredients raised by its operator.

A distillery in Otaki has used the edible rose to develop a carbonated drink. A coffee shop famed for quality gelati places petals and drizzles rose syrup on a shaved ice bowl, which became especially popular in summer.

CHANCE OFFER VIA MEXICAN EMBASSY

An unexpected turn of events transpired in summer 2024, when a trading house visited the Otaki town hall and asked if it was interested in producing prickly pear cactuses.

The company, saying it reached out to Otaki at the recommendation of the Mexican Embassy in Tokyo, added that it would buy the entire harvest if the town willingly embraced the offer.

“Cactuses have the potential to save the future of the Earth,” the mercantile company told the municipal government, referring to an aggressive U.N. movement to ramp up production of edible, nutrient-rich cactuses in preparation for a possible global food crisis.

The town saw a business opportunity in the proposal.

“The thorny plant could turn out to be effective in preventing a negative impact from pesky animals,” one town official said.

The Mexican Embassy acted as a mediator between the company and Otaki town.

The Japanese town has a sister-city relationship with the Mexican city of Cuernavaca.

The lord of the domain in what is currently Otaki town rescued the crew of a Spanish vessel that became shipwrecked on its way back to Mexico during the early Edo Period (1603-1867).

The municipality’s biggest concern about the cactuses was whether they could survive the sub-zero winter temperatures.

But last winter, a nonwoven fabric covering the plants helped them withstand the shivering temperatures.

Otaki Mayor Noboru Hirabayashi emphasized his strong hope to foster a sense of pride among residents under the specialized agriculture policy.

Hirabayashi aims to take full advantage of idle farmland by cultivating unconventional crops and promoting them as regional delicacies.

Another goal is providing the pensioner generation with a new source of income, no matter how modest the public contribution may be.

“Pitching the roselle, rose and cactus, I still do not know where I will end up,” Hirabayashi said. “For now, my wish is to simply keep moving forward like in the old tale ‘The Straw Millionaire’ (in which a man grows wealthy starting with a deal for a piece of straw), holding on to the passion I had at the start.”