Large-scale rice production in the state of Arkansas became a significant industry in the late 20th/early 19th centuries with wide-scale propagation in the country by businessmen W.H. More fully around 1896. Arkansas has historically been the largest rice producer in the whole of the United States, accounting for almost 45% of US rice production in 2001, and less than half of the nation's hectares of rice harvested nationally. Most Arkansas rice is grown in the eastern part of the country, where it requires almost three times more irrigation water than the average eleven inches the area receives during the growing season. In areas with the lowest rainfall, or where brown weeds are a significant problem, farmers follow three years, three phases of soy-soybean "soybean" rotation. However, most Arkansas rice producers follow two years, two-phase rotation of rice crops after soybeans.
Video Rice cultivation in Arkansas
History
The origins of rice cultivation in the state of Arkansas, as well as throughout the Grand Prairie region, are usually associated with businessmen Nebraskan W.H. Fuller's move to Lonoke County, Arkansas, and subsequent rice cultivation across the region. The idea to grow rice in Arkansas came to Fuller in August 1896, when he traveled to Louisiana with Hewit Puryear's companion for a hunting trip. Throughout their horse and carriage trips, the two men were mainly captivated by rice fields in the town of Crowley, south Louisiana. It's in front of the fields that Fuller realizes "... we have a nice rice country if we have water." At that time there were no wells [close to Crowley] but they were talking about making wells, which gave me the idea of ​​wells here. " Fuller was initially successful, but later realized that he had not mastered the technique of rice cultivation, and in 1898 started with fellow farmers Nebraskan John Morris returned to Louisiana to perfect this technique. Fuller returned to Arkansas in 1903, a master of rice farming, sowing his acre in 1904, from which he harvested more than 5,000 bushels.
Maps Rice cultivation in Arkansas
Economy
Arkansas' annual rice crop is very important to the country's economy, contributing more than $ 6 billion to the country's economy each year and contributing more than 25,000 jobs. Being a large system with many interrelated factors, the factors that affect the profitability of Arkansas rice are diverse and numerous. For example, Arkansas rice producer profit margins are directly affected by domestic agricultural prices, which in turn are closely linked to global market prices. Along with this, government payments also have a direct impact on Arkansas agricultural revenues, and in turn the quality of the crops/profits due to government-driven programs and methods (such as crop mixing as a way to manage risk). The return of rice crops in Arkansas varies greatly depending on the variety cultivated, the method of crop rotation, the area of ​​the country where it grows, the method of cultivation, etc. For example, "sustainable rice yields the largest gross return [from 2000-2001.] Per hectare on average, ranging from $ 936.94 ha -1 to $ 1195.83 ha -1 , "while" corn-rice rotation yields the smallest average gross return, "generating only $ 749.24 ha -1 to $ 1003.79 ha -1 . Subsidents
The USDA is actively supporting rice farming in Arkansas with subsidies and programs. In 2010, rice subsidies in Arkansas totaled $ 189,171,838, mostly in the form of direct payments. However, the USDA also supports Arkansas rice farmers in the form of other economic programs such as production flexibility and commodity certificates, which cost the government more than $ 1 billion and $ 790 million in subsidies, respectively, from 1995-2010.
Geography
Of all the rice producing countries, Arkansas continues to be the largest in terms of the amount of rice grown and also the production. In 2003, Arkansas owned 1,466,600 hectares planted with rice. California and Louisiana, two states that rode into Arkansas in this category, had only 509,000 and 455,000 hectares of rice cultivated in the same year. The five largest rice-producing districts in the state of Arkansas are Poinsett (134,944 harvested areas), Arkansas (117,650 harvested areas), Cross (106,254 harvests), Jackson (101,762 harvests), and Lawrence (99,480 harvested areas) in 2003, which representing almost 36% of the country's total land area under rice production.
Method
Rice is a highly water-intensive plant, and as a result requires little irrigation "to be secured from other sources." However, Arkansas rice farmers have adopted water-efficient irrigation practices in which natural slopes and soil depth can be utilized to retain water. One of the methods adopted more and more by rice farmers in Arkansas is the cultivation of straight levee rice. Other common methods of irrigation include floods, where 1,089,036 hectares of rice (74.9% of the total area) are irrigated in 2003, as well as floods/some holes, of which 361,168 (24.8% of the total acreage) of acre is watered with in the same year.
Preparation/Nursery
Arkansas rice is usually grown in drilled lines, which are flooded at four to six leaf stages (usually four to five weeks after planting), under dry bean culture. Many Arkansas rice farmers still rely on conventional soil farming methods to grow their rice, such as Dow Brantley farmer from the United Kingdom, Arkansas who reported in 2005 that he "still grows about 20 percent of 1,200 hectares of rice crops in conventional landfill methods." Growing most of the rice by the inadequate method, Brantley has found that "reduced benefits to rice... include: lower production costs, more profits per hectare, less labor demand (the same workforce handles more hectares ), less usage on equipment, more residue (which helps with more cotton), and less pressure on brown rice, especially with rice continuously. "
Fertilization
As with many problems related to rice farming in Arkansas, the extent and method of fertilization vary depending on a number of factors. Nitrogen fertilization, like many plants grown in the United States, often plays an important role in rice growth in Arkansas. The University of Arkansas Agricultural Division (U.A.D.A.) shows different amounts of Nitrogen additions to the soil depending on factors such as soil type, planted rice varieties, crop rotations, etc. For example, U.A.D.A. recommend  £ 150/acre ("this recommendation for N is applied in 2 or 3-way split applications where 90 lb N/acre is applied preflood and followed by 60 lb N/acre in midseason") for Wells rice grown in rotation with soybeans in mud/sandy soil. However, a simple change in the soil texture of silt/sand-clay soil to the clay soil induces a 30 lb per acre increase in the recommended amount of Nitrogen to be added to the soil.
Variety
The most prominent rice varieties were planted in Arkansas, with the percentage of each area occupied from the total area under rice cultivation: Wells (45.2%), Cocodrie (21.8%), Bengal (11.2%), Francis (6.3%), CL 161 (4.7%), and LaGrue (2.6%). The wells, the most prominent rice varieties grown in Arkansas, are long grain kernels that were actually developed by the Arkansas University Agricultural Experiment Station in February 1999 to improve crop yields. Although the long-grained varieties of Wells basically dominate rice fields in Arkansas, "Bengal is a successful southern grain medium that was released in 1993 and is still the main medium-sized grain variet grown in Arkansas."
Weed/pest
A number of diseases and pests posed a threat to rice cultivation in the state of Arkansas. One such cause, Pyricularia grisea, commonly known as rice explosion, is an invasive fungus that spreads mainly through infected rice from the previous year, related host species and sometimes even infected seeds. Although the fungal epidemic appears to be sporadic (infected seeds are likely to cause randomness in the distribution of rice bursts in Arkansas rice fields), "rice explosions have caused significant yield loss in Arkansas." Another real disease "only second, and often rivals, an important rice explosion" is a cured disease, a soil pathogen borne by early symptoms that usually begin with "lesions on the leaf sheath when the plant is in the late pupil or stage the initial growth of the internal segment. "Weeds that may be the biggest threat to Arkansas rice are barley grass, because of" broad resistance to propanil and quinclorac, the two most commonly used herbicides. " Along with this, "fierce red rice (Oryza sativa ) is a troubled weed in cultivated rice," and from rice fields in Arkansas that account for 50% of the national crop, "about 60% of this... has some red rice infestation. "Weeds such as thin grass and red rice weeds can often have a detrimental effect on rice fields throughout the state of Arkansas, causing a loss of over $ 22 million in 1992.
See also
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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