These artistic farmers use their rice fields as giant murals

Japanese farmers and artists have worked together to turn rice fields into art.

For nearly three decades, the people of Enacadit – a rural rice-growing village – have been thinking about ways to attract tourism and revitalize their economy.

When city officials saw a large group of elementary school children hand planting a rice field, they came up with an idea – the art of growing rice!

They connected local artists with farmers and hired thousands of volunteers to grow seven different colors of rice to preplanned designs, like a giant project colored by numbers.

A village meeting is held every year to define the theme. Village officials create a simple computer model and ask the art teachers to make more detailed drawings.

Then colored markers are placed in the waterfield and finally the citizens are recruited to fill in the gaps with the appropriate rice plant variety.

The designs change every year, so tourists keep coming back year after year.

The art of growing rice draws 150,000 visitors annually in a city with fewer than 9,000 inhabitants.

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