POSSIBILITY OF PERSONAL STORING OF CEREALS

Farming is very popular in Tohoku Region. Especially the yield of rice in this region is more than 10%of that in Japan. However, farmers have a problem with its storage in winter and summer. In general,rice should be harvested in autumn, and be stored until the harvest next year. To store it in summer,electric refrigerators are generally used and they cost a couple of million yen every year. This is notgood in view of the promotion of Kyoto Protocol concerning global warming.In this study, the authors propose a passive storing model that makes the best use of the thermalinsulation ability and the thermal capacity of the soil. Although an old tunnel has been used as apassive storehouse for several years in Iwate Prefecrture, it has not been know yet to farmers ingeneral. The authors started the investigations of actual conditions of Tohoku Region, and examinedthe possibility of a personal storing by experiments and calculations.The results of this review will show the possibility of a passive and personal model for storing cereals.