California growers will record their smallest rice crop in 17 years as U.S. production fell by 14 percent this year, says the monthly Rice Outlook report. Plantings and yields are down in most states although California, in the second year of water restrictions, is forecast to have a record yield of 8,600 pounds per acre. “Conditions were quite favorable in California,” said the USDA. But the high yield will be offset by plantings of 416,000 acres, which are the smallest since 1992 and down by 27 percent since 2013.
The major reason for the smaller U.S. crop is the cutback in Arkansas, which grows half of the U.S. crop. Plantings are down 11 percent and yields are forecast down 2 percent in Arkansas, so the harvest will be 14-percent smaller than in 2014. Mississippi and Louisiana also are seeing large declines in production. “In much of the Delta, heavy rains delayed plantings and continued to interfere with field operations and applications,” said the USDA. “This was followed by extremely hot temperatures during the critical flowering stage, with little of the beneficial cooling at night that is needed for higher yields.”