Rice acreage doesn’t compare to corn, soybeans and cotton acres in the U.S., but it could see a jump to 400,000, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Prospective Plantings report.
“Good planting conditions are also favoring rice,” Ted Wilson, director of the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center at Beaumont, told AgWeb. “And the relaxing of drought is helping rice acres rebound.”
Wilson said the drought in the Lone Star State and delayed planting reduced rice acres last year. But with the increase in moisture, planting conditions should improve this year.
“It’s all about price,” Chuck Wilson, director of the Rice Research and Extension Center at the University of Arkansas, said. “Dry, warm weather has also been conducive to planting rice. I knew going into it that if planting conditions were favorable in March and April, we would plant a lot more rice in Arkansas.”
Texas will see an increase of 42 percent of 56,000 acres of rice planted this year. The majority of the rice will be planted in Matagorda, Wharton and Colorado counties.
Wilson noted the water levels in the reservoirs started to increase when the drought began to lift in those counties. The water contracts are now being honored by the Lower Colorado River Authority.