They grew watermelon, spinach, taro, and five kinds of rice,[a] from which they also made baked goods to sell.
Food self-sufficiency was 73% in 1965 and steeply declined as government promotion of manufactured goods led to rapid urbanization and an aging rural population who increasingly had to supplement their incomes with outside work.
Young people have tended to avoid agricultural work due to stereotypes of it being laborious and biased against women.
[1] Nahoko Takahashi[b] returned to her parents' home after graduating from Yokohama National University.
[4] The farm was focusing on rice grown with organic methods as a main source of income.