Harvest and rice straw

This is a harvesting season in Japan. Rice paddies in this area are now almost dried and harvested except for some varieties like mochi rice and okute rice. Yesterday, I went to visit a friend in a village in the mountains with my wife, and saw a farmer cutting rice straw in a dried paddy. The smell of dried straw was refreshing.
Traditionally, rice straw was stored and used for various use. Rope, sheets, baskets, sandals, boots and many other things were made of rice straw. To build a traditional house, rice straw was used for thatching and plastering. It was used as fodder and bed for draft cattle and caws. Rice straw is used for mulching and composting. In some area where timbers are scarce, they used it as fuel. Rices straw was essential to make a living in rural area in Japan.
Time has been changed and now there are much less demand for rice straw. Rope made of rice straw is still used, and you can find sandals and ornaments made of it in the souvenir shop. Shrine needs it for their ceremony and there are still demands for traditional Japanese house construction. But cows and cattle are long gone from ordinary farm and every house has its electricity and supply of gas. No one needs as much rice straw as they produce every year, and excess straw are cut down into small and scattered in the paddies to be decomposed in the winter.
Still, you need rice straw to maintain a vegetable garden. It can help seedling taking root in the spring, and help vines to clime for peas and beans. You don't get good vegetables if you don't get enough rice straw. If you want to grow vegetable in Japanese rural area, you need to grow rice in paddy along with vegetables. In this sense, a farmer in Japan is essentially a rice grower.
I have a small vegetable garden, but I don't have a rice paddy. In this sense, I am a pseudo farmer.