The Japanese are preparing for the fact that all the ducks will disappear (4 photos + 1 video)

You know the saying that if something quacks like a duck, it's a duck? Not in Japan. When the problem with ducks arose there, the Japanese solved it in a purely Japanese way - they made a robot instead of a duck.





I'm a duck. There will be no proofs

Why do the Japanese need to replace the duck?

The fact is that Japanese farmers used to live in a close symbiosis with ducks. They were allowed to swim in rice fields; the ducks did not touch the rice, but they ate all sorts of insects and parasites. And most importantly, they whipped the water with their paws while swimming, not allowing it to stagnate and turn sour.

The churned water is saturated with oxygen, it is a completely different body of water with different flora and algae than in stagnant water. And duck manure served as additional fertilizer for the fields.



Did you know that ducks are rice's best friend? Mallards!

But with the arrival of large agricultural companies, it has become easier to replace ducks with pesticides that would fight harmful algae in rice fields. Insects were also poisoned with chemicals.

But what to do with the fact that little duck feet no longer stir up water between the rows of planted rice? To do this, you need to invent a separate robot, this is Japan.





Doesn't such a fat robot bend down the stems of young rice?

Do you know what the robot duck did?

Engineer from Nissan! He developed the Aigamo duck - this is a white oval robot that moves like a duck. It will help farmers maintain their fields by reducing the amount of chemicals used.

That is, a robot duck is needed for more environmentally friendly rice.



A Nissan engineer lets his duck out for a walk on the canal

Aigamo is the name of a real breed of duck that Japanese farmers used to coexist with. Instead of paws, it has two rotating brushes that saturate the water with oxygen and remove the weed films that form on the surface.

All over the world, by the way, the size of fields suitable for growing rice is now decreasing. This is all due to global climate change, but rice production has so far been maintained at the required level due to more fertile modified varieties.