Arkansas Rice: More Than Just a Crop
Living and farming in Arkansas, rice is such a familiar part of our landscape that I think it can be easy to take for granted. We drive past rice fields all summer, see combines cutting rice in the fall, buy it at the grocery store, and serve it at our tables. But most people probably don’t stop to think about everything connected to those fields—or how many Arkansas families, businesses, and communities depend on them.
I recently sat down with Kelly Robbins, executive director of Arkansas Rice, and our conversation was a good reminder that the story of rice in Arkansas reaches far beyond the farm. Rice means jobs and strong rural communities. It means students and scholarships, food on the tables of families who need it and, especially right now, an industry working together to make sure Arkansas rice farming has a future.
So, What Exactly Does Arkansas Rice Do?
Kelly has a simple way of explaining the job of a trade association. He calls it the “three shuns”: communication, education and representation. For Arkansas Rice, I think we can add another one to that list: promotion.
The organization helps keep farmers and industry members informed, represents rice at the state and federal levels, educates people about our industry and works to tell the story of Arkansas rice. And it is certainly a story worth telling.
Arkansas has more than 1,600 rice farms, with the vast majority of them family owned. Kelly shared that each of those farms is estimated to have about a $1 million economic impact on its local community. When you stop and think about that, the impact is significant because the money generated by a farm doesn’t stay on the farm. It goes to equipment dealers, seed companies, fertilizer suppliers, crop consultants, banks, restaurants and local stores, as well as the people who work for all of those businesses.
Altogether, Arkansas’s rice industry supports approximately 25,000 jobs and contributes around $6 billion to our state’s economy. That’s a pretty big footprint for a grain that starts with one tiny seed.
September Is Rice Month
September is Rice Month in Arkansas, and this year there’s another reason to celebrate as Arkansas Rice marks its 75th anniversary. Rice Month gives our industry an opportunity to recognize the farmers who grow the crop while also helping people outside of agriculture understand why rice matters to Arkansas.
One of the traditions is Rice Day, when the governor officially recognizes September as Rice Month. There will also be promotions and contests throughout the month, along with a 75th anniversary tailgate in Fayetteville before the Razorbacks play Georgia on September 19.
But one of the most impressive Rice Month traditions doesn’t happen at a football game. Each year, Arkansas’s rice industry comes together to donate rice to the Arkansas Food Bank, and last year’s donation totaled more than 350,000 pounds of rice.
I love that because we spend a lot of time talking about agriculture in terms of acres, yields, prices and markets. Those things certainly matter, especially to those of us trying to make a living growing a crop, but ultimately our job is growing food. Seeing Arkansas rice farmers and the rest of our industry help put that food directly into the hands of Arkansas families is something worth celebrating.
Investing in the Next Generation
Kelly and I also spent some time talking about something I believe is incredibly important: getting young people involved in agriculture. The Rice Reps program gives rising high school seniors the opportunity to serve as ambassadors for Arkansas rice, spending their summer learning about the industry and helping tell our story through social media, contests and other activities.
This year, approximately 80 students from more than 40 school districts and 25 or 26 counties are participating, and they also have the opportunity to compete for as much as $18,000 in scholarship money.
Arkansas Rice offers another scholarship program for college juniors and seniors studying agriculture at six Arkansas colleges. Those scholarships are funded through the Arkansas Rice Council specialty license plate program, and that’s a connection I particularly love. Something as simple as choosing an Arkansas Rice license plate can help a young person pursue a career in agriculture.
And we need those young people because one of the biggest questions facing agriculture today isn’t just how we get through this year. It’s who will be here to farm, lead our organizations, work in our businesses and advocate for agriculture 10, 20 and 30 years from now.
Celebrating Rice While Facing a Difficult Reality
As much as there is to celebrate, Kelly and I couldn’t talk about Arkansas rice without talking about what farmers are facing right now. Arkansas is experiencing its lowest rice acreage in 50 years, while U.S. rice acreage has fallen to its lowest level since 1972.
Those aren’t just statistics. Behind those numbers are farm families making incredibly difficult decisions about whether to replace a piece of equipment or keep repairing the old one, how many employees a farm can afford, what crop gets planted next year and how much debt can reasonably be carried. For some families, the question is even more difficult: whether there is a path forward at all.
The economics of growing rice—and many of our other row crops—are incredibly difficult right now, which is why the representation part of Arkansas Rice’s work matters so much. Kelly and his team work alongside USA Rice, the Arkansas Rice Farmers Board, the Arkansas Rice Council, merchants, millers and businesses throughout the industry to make sure the concerns of rice farmers are heard in Little Rock and Washington.
We talked about the uncertainty surrounding farm policy, the need for additional economic assistance and the continued work being done on behalf of rice farmers. I’ve spent enough time working on farm policy to know that progress can sometimes feel painfully slow, but I’ve also learned that agriculture can’t afford to sit on the sidelines.
We have to tell our story and explain what’s happening on our farms, and we have to show policymakers that when farms struggle, the impact doesn’t stop at the farm gate. It moves through entire rural communities.
Rice Really Is More Than a Crop
Maybe that’s what stayed with me most after my conversation with Kelly. Rice is a crop, but the story of Arkansas rice has never been only about what grows in a field. It’s about farm families who have spent generations growing it, the employees and local businesses that depend on it, students receiving scholarships and young people learning how to advocate for agriculture.
It’s also about hundreds of thousands of pounds of rice going to families who need it. And right now, it’s about an industry pulling together during an incredibly difficult time and fighting for its future.
That’s one of the reasons I enjoy these conversations so much. We may start out talking about rice, soybeans, markets or farm policy, but eventually we always get back to people. Because that’s really what agriculture is about—the people who grow our food, the communities that depend on them and the next generation we’re hoping will have the opportunity to keep doing it.
There is always more to the story.
A Few Dates to Keep on Your Radar
September 19: Arkansas Rice 75th Anniversary Tailgate — Fayetteville
October 10: 50th Annual Arkansas Rice Festival — Weiner
November 6–7: Grains and Gathers Celebration and Rice Bowl Activities — Jonesboro
December 13–15: USA Rice Outlook — Nashville
February 17: Arkansas Rice Annual Meeting
February 18–19: Cotton and Rice Conference — Jonesboro
If you want to learn more about Arkansas rice, follow Arkansas Rice throughout Rice Month and beyond. The more people understand where their food comes from—and the people and communities behind it—the stronger the connection between agriculture and the people we feed.
And that is a story worth telling.