Yarobi farming method - Yarobi nouhou

This is a term for agricultural techniques that spread throughout Japan in the 1950s through farmers in Shimoina, Nagano Prefecture, and is also known as Michurin agriculture. After the October Revolution of 1917, Michurin of the Soviet Union was recognized by Lenin and Stalin for his achievements in cultivating fruit varieties using new techniques, and was highly praised as a Soviet agricultural engineer. New techniques, for example, in the central Soviet Union, when pears from distant regions such as Asia and Europe were cross-bred, the characteristics of the parents were lost and new varieties with new characteristics were developed; in the case of grafting, even if the scion is removed at a certain time, the young rootstock changes its characteristics for the scion, and in the case of vegetative grafting hybridization, when fruits do not bear fruit easily in normal cross-breeding, grafting between the two and cross-breeding the scion with the pollen of the rootstock makes cross-breeding possible, and these theories proposed were incomprehensible to Mendelian genetics. Lysenko of the Soviet Union, who investigated the vernalization phenomenon, further developed Michurin's theory, which later came to be known as the Michurin-Lysenko theory.For a time (around 1950), there was a lively debate in countries around the world between the two schools of thought - Mendelian genetics, which denies the genetic changes of organisms in response to external environmental conditions, and Lysenko genetics, which affirms this.

Yarov is an abbreviation of the Russian word yarovizatsiya (meaning spring sowing, vernalization), and Yarov farming is a farming method based on the theory of Lysenko et al. that controls the growth of crops through temperature treatment to change the characteristics of the crops. There are cases where the goal is breeding autumn sowing characteristics to spring sowing characteristics, or late maturing characteristics to early maturing characteristics, and cases where the goal is cultivation techniques that aim to increase yields through low temperature treatment. In Japan, the Yarov farming method was extended to vegetables such as tomatoes and cucumbers in addition to grains such as rice and wheat, with the aim of increasing yields. However, the results were unclear and the method was abandoned by 1970 (Showa 45).

[Masatake Tanaka]

"The Valley of Yarobi - The Michurin Movement in Shimoina" by Nofu Kuribayashi (Aoki Bunko)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

1950年代に、長野県下伊那(しもいな)の農民を通じて日本全国に広まった農業技術に対する用語で、一名ミチューリン農業とよばれる。ソ連のミチューリンは1917年の十月革命後、新技術による果樹品種の育成の功績をレーニン、スターリンに認められ、ソ連農業技術者として高く評価された。新技術とは、たとえば中部ソ連において、アジアとヨーロッパのような遠隔地間のナシを交配すると、両親の特性は失われ、新しい特性をもった品種が育成されるとか、接木(つぎき)の場合、接穂を一定の時期に取り去っても、若い台木はこの接穂のために性質を変えるというメントール法、また普通の交配では容易に結実しない場合、その間で接木をし、穂木(ほぎ)に台木の花粉を交配すると交雑が可能となる栄養接木雑種法などで、メンデル遺伝学では理解不可能な理論を提案した。春化(しゅんか)現象を究明したソ連のルイセンコはミチューリンの理論をさらに発展させ、のちにミチューリン‐ルイセンコ理論といわれ、外的環境条件に対する生物体の遺伝的変化を否定するメンデル遺伝学と、これを肯定するルイセンコ遺伝学の二つの路線が一時期（1950前後）世界各国で活発に論争された。

　ヤロビとはロシア語のヤロビザーツィヤяровизация／yarovizatsiya（春播(まき)にする、春化の意）の略語で、ヤロビ農法とは、ルイセンコらの理論に基づいて、作物を温度処理によってその成長を支配し、作物の性質を変える農法を意味し、秋播き性→春播き性、あるいは晩熟性→早熟性という育種を目標とする場合と、低温処理による増収などをねらう栽培技術を目標としている。わが国のヤロビ農法はむしろ増収を目的としてイネ、ムギの穀物以外にトマト、キュウリなどの野菜にまで及んだ。しかしその成果が不明のまま1970年（昭和45）までには立ち消えとなった。

［田中正武］

『栗林農夫著『ヤロビの谷間――下伊那のミチュリン運動』（青木文庫）』

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