Editor
Nowadays, when you google something, you get an “AI Overview” at the top of the screen of results. If you google “Preparing for the unexpected,” you get the following: “To prepare for the unexpected, identify potential risks, develop contingency plans, communicate effectively, and be adaptable, focusing on both personal and professional preparedness.”
I believe this month’s issue of Rice Farming has a lot to say about all of this. Beginning with “identifying risks,” page six covers an Arkansas study on growers’ attitudes toward risk and water: “Agriculture requires enormous amounts of water in the United States and elsewhere, and drought can severely impact crop production. The study will use farmer surveys to measure their risk preferences and incorporate this data into economic and hydrological models. These models will simulate how irrigation decisions change over time, particularly during prolonged droughts, and predict whether farmers will adapt to drier conditions or overuse aquifers, potentially necessitating future public policy interventions.”
Developing contingency plans is huge, and this month’s Ag Law & Policy department article is all about ECAP — the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program. The economic assistance payments going to eligible producers are aimed at helping commodity producers “mitigate the impacts of increased input costs and falling commodity prices.” See pages eight and nine for more information and eligibility requirements.
Communicating effectively is quite an art. I feel as though it is a lifelong effort to maintain and improve upon communication skills, and the cover story spanning pages 14 and 15 was a good example of this to me. The University of California Cooperative Extension group is studying the benefits of an alternative method of managing field margins by incorporating hedgerows in rice fields. This study does a great job of laying out the foundation, including what might be a solution to the issue, and what additional benefits may be derived.
Being adaptable is something that can put you ahead in this day and age. Pages 16 and 17 provide an integrated approach from Ford Baldwin, Arkansas Agriculture Hall of Fame member, on how to preserve our current Provisia and Max-Ace technologies in the face of heightened resistance levels seen elsewhere pushing for good stewardship of what we have. “The program outlined here targets fields where weedy rice has become enough of an issue for farmers to switch to Provisia and Max-Ace rice. The components in the program have been thoroughly researched by Dr. Norsworthy and others with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture. They have been successfully put into practice by Terry Gray, a zero-grade rice farmer at Delaplaine, Arkansas, who had created and has now solved a severe weedy rice problem.”
Focusing on both personal and professional preparedness is an interesting component. I think we can all agree life didn’t turn out exactly the way we might have planned it ourselves long ago, but I’m also fairly positive most would say it’s worked out better than we could have imagined. Tim Jett is a great example of this in our April My Turn on page 22. Read his unlikely journey into the agricultural industry that began in the booming metropolis of Dallas, Texas. I gleaned so much from his story and was inspired throughout.
Be safe out there, and leave some room for opportunity and growth!