Preparing US Rice For A Parched Future
By Jan Suszkiw
USDA/ARS
In a recent issue of Agronomy, a team of Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and university scientists report their identification of U.S. rice varieties with the right "genetic" stuff for coping with reduced water use.
Their efforts dovetail with a trend toward water-saving measures that some growers are implementing in not only Arkansas, which produces half the U.S. rice crop, but also other major rice-growing states, namely Mississippi, Missouri, Louisiana, Texas and California.