MIKE LOIZZO GAINSVILLE, FLORIDA The Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) boasts organic-rich soil, ideal for farming. Rice producers, however, must deal with phosphorus and iron tightly bound in the soil, making them unavailable to plants. New University of Florida Institute of Food and...

Matt Salanik, Brighton Agency For rice farmers, every season brings new challenges. Weather shifts, rising input costs, and global trade pressures make planning harder and margins tighter. As growers prepare for the 2026 season, resilience will once again be tested in...

JARROD T. HARDKE STUTTGART, ARKANSAS Each year has its own set of problems, but the 2025 season was particularly unique. Seed shortages and finding a way to profit were the main topics leading up to planting. A seemingly favorable early spring...

TYLER MUSGROVE BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA As we close out the 2025 rice season, ratoon crop harvest has been recently completed across southwest Louisiana. With record low commodity prices and novel pest challenges, the value of the second crop is vital for...

WILL EUBANK MISSISSIPPI STATE, MISSISSIPPI Mississippi’s 2025 rice crop was one with many ups and downs. Overall, this year’s planted and failed acres totaled to 161,000 acres, which was 36,000 more than Mississippi’s last five-year average. Bolivar county led rice acres...

  BRUCE LINQUIST DAVIS, CALIFORNIA In California, 533,000 acres of rice were planted in 2025, which is the highest amount since 2016.Some of this increase in acreage was seen in San Joaquin County, which planted 15,000 acres in 2025. There has been...

MICHELLE LEINFELDER-MILES STOCKTON, CALIFORNIA Variety Trial: Delta rice acreage has been steadily increasing, and yields are comparable with the statewide average (Table 1). I estimate that Delta acreage approached, if not exceeded, 15,000 acres in 2025. To support the growing industry,...

Rice, It Is The Best Of Times And The Worst Of Times RICHARD E. HICKS OCEAN SPRINGS, MISSISSIPPI If I may be so bold to paraphrase Dickens rice farming today can be at the least challenging and best a daunting challenge. I...

Farmers Look to Diversify Crops, Improve Profitability TATE CRONIN DYERSBURG, TENNESSEE Rice is the primary staple for more than half the world’s population, with the United States alone estimated to plant almost 3 million acres in 2025, according to the USDA. Most...

Felipe Dalla Lana (Rice Pathologist) and Madison Flasco BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA The list of pathogens causing disease in Louisiana’s rice fields is long, and it may soon grow due tothe re-emergence of a viral disease that has not been seen in...

The 29th Annual National Conservation Systems Cotton & Rice Conference, Southern Soybean & Corn Conference, Southern Precision Ag Conference, and Delta States Irrigation Conference are headed to Jonesboro, AR. Sponsored by Cotton Incorporated, US Rice Producers Association, and the...

Conservation... calricenews.org We want to thank the following partner organizations for their support of the rice footprint report written by UC Davis earlier this year. As the report clearly states, working ricelands provide critical habitat in a state that has lost...

Dr. Michelle M Leinfelder-Miles / UCCE [email protected] This article is my annual review of UCCE Delta rice research and seasonal observations. Variety Trial: Delta rice acreage has been steadily increasing, and yields are comparable with the statewide average (Table 1). I estimate that...

Amy Gimpel Biological and Agricultural Engineering WATER RESEARCH — Annie Lobitz, left, and Wafa Youssfi, graduate students in the College of Engineering at the University of Arkansas, are part of a research collaboration between the college and the Arkansas Water Resources...

By Michael Klein NEW ORLEANS, LA – The 2025 USA Rice Outlook Conference, now just a few days away, strives to offer relevant and timely programming to improve the sustainability and viability of the entire U.S. rice industry, in addition...