ABSTRACT
Rice cultivation first appeared in the continental United States in the mid-17th century (Dethloff, 2003, in press). The first cultivated rice variety, Carolina gold, is reported to have arrived in South Carolina from Madagascar (Littlefield, 1981). Westward expansion in the United States along with the Civil War resulted in rice production shifting from South Carolina and Georgia to the Mississippi River areas of Louisiana (Babineaux, 1967). The availability of railroads and an influx of farmers from other grain-producing areas of the United States resulted in a rapid expansion of rice production in Louisiana and Texas. Rice cultivation soon spread to Arkansas, where production increased from 6,333 kg in 1899 to 25.5m kg in 1909 (Spicer, 1964). A collection of the original varieties introduced into the United States was tested in California in the late 1800s but failed to produce grain. In 1906 William W. Mackie discovered that a short-grain Japanese variety brought from Hawaii produced sufficient grain for commercial production (Dethloff, 2003, in press). Currently, rice production in the United States is found in Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, and Missouri (Fig. 1). Total U.S. rice production has increased steadily since 1960 (Fig. 2). Arkansas is the largest rice-producing state, with approximately 600,000 ha planted each year. In addition to this, there is approximately 20,000 ha of winter wheat grown
annually in the state. Rice has been the primary crop in the silt-loam soil areas of the Arkansas Delta since it was included in the Agricultural Act of 1933 (Cramer et aI., 1990). This and subsequent agriculture bills to the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 restricted the area planted into rice, thus encouraging farmers to rotate with other crops. Soybeans emerged as the crop of choice to rotate with rice throughout much of the Mississippi Valley area. Initially rice was followed with two seasons of soybeans; today many farmers use a two-phase rice-soybean rotation. The introduction of wheat into the rice cropping systems occurred some time ago, but only recently have farmers regarded wheat as a crop that had economic potential. With approval of the Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act in 1966, restrictions on the area of rice planted were removed and farmers were free to select the crop they felt would give them the best financial return. This change provided an incentive to intensify production within rice rotations through the addition of other crops such as wheat.
