Long after sunset, Motoaki Iijima's illuminated greenhouse north of Tokyo glows like a lantern as the flower farmer harvests pink and orange gerberas, avoiding a daytime sun fierce enough to be deadly. As increasingly intense heatwaves turn Japanese summers into survival tests, farmers. from flower and asparagus growers to egg producers, are rewriting the agrarian clock. Once-busy midday hours are now avoided as a mortal threat, replaced by after-dark work to protect crops, livestock and themselves.

Iijima, 36, converted his family's centuries-old rice farm in the rural town of Nikko into a flower farm a decade ago. Three summers ago, after a part-time worker suffered heatstroke picking sunflowers in his greenhouse, he made a dramatic change. Outside temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), increasingly common in his region, can push greenhouse interiors above 40 C. Now, Iijima works outdoors through the night, stopping only when the morning sun turns punishing again.

"The hours around dusk are really precious. That's when we can be outside," he says, wiping sweat from his forehead under rows of halogen lights. "We've gradually become nocturnal. It's about protecting our bodies, and ultimately, our lives."

From rice farmers in Vietnam to winery workers in Spain, farmers across the globe are shifting work to cooler nighttime and early-morning hours as they try to beat more frequent and intense heatwaves.
 

Source: www.floraldaily.com