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The System of Rice Intensification has been named as a 2020 climate policy “breakthrough” for government initiatives in Vietnam to increase agricultural production there while reducing methane emissions from rice paddies. SRI was recognized by Apolitical, a peer-to-peer learning platform for sharing government policy ideas, as one of the most beneficial climate policies that can mitigate climate change or enable ... Read More »

• By Michael Klein • The rice industry was reeling from severe weather in 2020 – the most named hurricanes to hit the United States ever and devastating wildfires out West. Optimists felt the new year would bring better everything, including weather. Two months in, they are sorely disappointed as punishing winter weather pounded much of the country and all ... Read More »

Based on  below-average statewide snowpack, the Bureau of Reclamation recently announced reduced water allocations for nearly all Central Valley Project water contractors. Deliveries could change depending on precipitation received during the next few months, said Ernest Conant, Reclamation regional director. The California Department of Water Resources reports that as of Feb. 21, statewide average snow water content in the Sierra ... Read More »

If you farm rice in Louisiana and flood your rice fields for waterfowl, the Louisiana State University AgCenter needs your help. It is working several public and private organizations to develop preliminary data on whether waterfowl have varietal preferences. If you flooded rice fields planted to more than one variety this past winter or previous years and saw a varietal ... Read More »

• By Adam Russell • Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientists have declared war on the fall armyworm. Dr. Greg Sword, Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Entomology professor, has received $499,000 to determine fall armyworm behaviors and genomic traits that could aid in controlling the agricultural pests. The three-year project funded by the National Institute of ... Read More »

Pass a good time with the Louisiana State University AgCenter at our virtual crawfish boil, noon-1 p.m. CST, Feb. 25! Bring your crawfish questions for the experts. LSU AgCenter aquaculture specialist Greg Lutz and research farm specialist John Sonnier will discuss Louisiana crawfish production — harvesting, pond management including nuisance animals, and the white spot syndrome virus. LSU AgCenter and ... Read More »

Three fixtures in Louisiana agriculture will be inducted into the Louisiana Agriculture Hall of Distinction during a ceremony at L’Auberge Hotel in Baton Rouge March 4. The new inductees are former Louisiana Farm Bureau President Ronnie Anderson, of Ethel; sugarcane farmer John Gay, of Plaquemine; and Paul “Jackie” Loewer of Branch, a rice farmer who has been a strong advocate ... Read More »

• By Fred Miller • A former graduate student’s research with x-rays has verified a hypothesis by Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station scientists about why rice kernels often break during milling. Decades of research by scientists in the experiment station’s rice processing program led researchers to hypothesize that uneven moisture content in the kernels during drying causes fissures that crack and ... Read More »

The Soil Health Institute is collaborating with Truterra as the scientific partner for soil metrics and sampling design for TruCarbon, the first farmer-owned carbon program in the United States. TruCarbon will help farmers generate and sell carbon credits to private-sector buyers. It is a partnership between Arden Hills, Minnesota-based grower cooperative, Land O’Lakes, and Truterra, which the co-op launched in ... Read More »

• By Bruce Schultz • A Louisiana State University AgCenter plant pathologist will use a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to pinpoint the location of a gene in rice that could help farmers control a potentially devastating plant disease. “Our goal is to characterize the resistance to narrow brown leaf spot at the genetic and functional level,” ... Read More »