State rice acreage plummets amid water reductions
This time of year, the Sacramento Valley should be buzzing with tractors working the soil and planes dropping rice seed onto flooded fields as farmers ramp up planting. … There’s a lack of activity because more rice fields will go unplanted this season due to the drought and reduced water deliveries to farms. In its prospective plantings report released at the end of March, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that California rice acreage will drop to 348,000 this year, the lowest since 1983-84. That’s compared to 407,000 acres last year and 517,000 acres in 2020.