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Tohoku University's Katsurao Plant Factory in Fukushima prefecture recently held a community event, where staff handed out 177 seedlings of Suzukoma tomatoes and taught local residents how to grow them.

According to Associate Professor Kazuhisa Kato, who runs the Plant Factory, Suzukoma tomatoes are easy to grow and extremely low maintenance. They are also perfect for cooking because they have a strong umami and tart flavour. "If all goes well, about 2 kilogrammes of tomatoes will be harvested from each of the 177 seedlings in the next three months," he said.

The Katsurao Plant Factory is an initiative by Tohoku University's Graduate School of Agriculture and the Fukushima Innovation Coast Framework. The project, which began in 2018, aims to cultivate clean tropical fruits and organic tomatoes, in response to concerns about the safety of local produce after the Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant accident in 2011.

The facility has three greenhouses, each fitted with technology that can control temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide concentration. The crops are monitored by researchers and staff through multiple cameras, an automatic data storage system and regular site visits.

"After the nuclear accident in 2011, farmers here had to stop farming and evacuate. When the evacuation order was lifted in 2016, most of the people who returned were elderly, and many gave up farming because of their age," said Kato. "So, one of the Plant Factory's missions is to support these farmers, encourage them to plant manageable crops, and hopefully some of them will be persuaded to return to larger-scale cultivation and create a business."

About 20 local residents attended this latest event, most of whom are regular attendees of the Plant Factory's community activities. "I think this means that they enjoy growing the vegetables, and like the Suzukoma that we provide," said Maki Tsuboi, who works at the facility.

To further engage local residents, staff at the Plant Factory regularly hand out fresh and dried Suzukoma tomatoes, and invite farmers and school children for educational visits to the facility's greenhouses.

While the Plant Factory has also tried growing bananas, rice and coffee beans over the years, mangoes and tomatoes have proven to be most viable.

Currently growing in the greenhouses are Suzukoma and Momotaro Gold tomatoes, as well as five different types of mangoes - Irwin, which is also known as the "apple mango" for its red colouring; Kinmitsu, which is known for its sweetness; Green Keitts, which is large and tart; Red Keitts and Natsuyuki.

"For the mangoes, we are now experimenting with controlled cultivation, where we control the temperature in our greenhouses to delay the flowering period," said Kato. "In Katsurao, the mangoes are naturally harvested between July and September. But by controlling the environment, we can aim for a late November harvest, which is the Oseibo sale season, when high quality fruits are in the most demand."

If successful, the team plans to send the mangoes to fruit buyers to get an evaluation of the taste and quality, as well as the estimated price if they take the fruits to market.

Since original government funding for the Plant Factory ended in 2021, the facility has transitioned into a joint-research project with general trading company Kyouei Co. Ltd. to try to create new agricultural businesses in the Hamadori area.

The hope, said Kato, is that organic fruits and vegetables grown using the techniques developed at the Plant Factory can eventually be produced on a larger scale and distributed across Japan.