The Rice Advocate, Vol. 17, Issue 48

Volume 17, Issue 48

December 3, 2020

In This Issue:

US Rice Farmers Meet in Houston & Virtually this Week
Texas Rice Farmers Visit SLRF
Texas Rice Update
Rice Market Update at a Glance

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US Rice Farmers Meet in Houston & Virtually This Week

The US Rice Producers Association met in Houston and virtually this week for their winter Board of Directors meeting. The board typically meets twice a year to discuss and bring forth the critical issues that U.S. rice farmers are facing domestically and internationally. This year, a small group decided to meet in Houston while other board members joined via Zoom.

Also this week, the USRPA held their annual Unified Export Strategy meeting to discuss, evaluate and analyze past and current promotional programs and trade servicing activities funded by the Market Access Program of the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. These funds have played a vital role in expanding and maintaining markets for U.S. rice in all its forms.

Bianka Rodriguez, USRPA Marketing and Western Hemisphere Director and Grace Wang, USRPA Eastern Hemisphere Director updated the USRPA Board, FAS Representatives and USA Rice Federation staff on the performance of these programs. Due to COVID-19, USRPA had to quickly adjust and evolve the programs to a digital platform and experienced great successes. USRPA invited the USARF's staff to present their program reviews and future plans as well. The program reviews were followed by USRPA's proposals for the following year's activities as USRPA looks forward to cooperating with the USARF on new endeavors in more markets.

REMINDER!! REGISTER TODAY FOR

RMTC's Virtual Seminar II:

"What Can We Expect from

the Mercosur Rice Market in 202?"

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2020

1:00 PM - 3:00 PM (US CT)

CLICK TO REGISTER

Texas Rice Farmers Visit South Louisiana Rail Facility

Texas rice farmers visit the Port of Lake Charles this week to watch as a ship is loaded with U.S. rice headed to Mexico.

A member of the USRPA, the South Louisiana Rail Facility has become an important entity in the rough rice export market during its brief history as an organization.

Pictured above (left to right): Coleman Franz, Mark Pousson, Wade Mock, Criss Schiurring, Josey Dishman, Galen Franz and Will Reneau

Texas Rice Update

By: Dr. M.O. (Mo) Way, Prof. of Entomology, Texas AgriLife Research & Extension Center, and Jaclyn Martin, Graduate student at Texas A&M

On November 18, 2020, the Beaumont Center faculty and other scientists at the Center met with Crop Consultants Cliff Mock and Weldon Nanson to discuss rice issues facing our clientele in 2020 and beyond. Dr. Ted Wilson headed up the 4-hour meeting which included a lunch catered by Jason’s Deli. The objective of the meeting was to learn about the researchable issues confronting Texas rice stakeholders, so we scientists can tailor our research to better serve our clientele. Topics of discussion included variety performance, planting dates and seeding rates, land preparation, herbicide efficacy, weed problems, water conservation and usage, fertility practices, timing of flooding and draining, grain quality, equipment preferences, storage and drying issues, marketing, production budgets, and pest management programs. In other words, just about every aspect of Texas rice production, as viewed through the lens of our Crop Consultants, was discussed. On behalf of the scientists at the Beaumont Center, I thank Cliff and Weldon for their time, travel and excellent presentations and insights during this meeting which has become an annual event.

Speaking of Cliff and Weldon, earlier in the year, both Consultants informed me they were finding very low populations of the rice planthopper in selected Texas rice fields. As you know, the rice planthopper is an exotic pest originating from Central and South America and the Caribbean. Well, Cliff recently discovered the insect in high densities in a rice field near Rosharon, Texas. The field was harvested, but the ratoon crop stubble was infested with the insects. My graduate student, Jaclyn Martin, met Cliff at the field and collected many of the insects, both nymphs and adults. She drove them back to College Station where she is attempting to establish a greenhouse colony. We do not want to establish a colony at the Beaumont Center for fear of accidentally infesting rice experiments ongoing in our greenhouses. In addition, Jaclyn will apply molecular genetic techniques to analyze the insects for a virus which causes a disease of the rice plant. She will also be able to find out how closely genetically related these Texas insects are to those found in Latin American countries. This could give us a clue as to where our Texas planthoppers originated. If Jaclyn is successful in starting a colony, she will be able to screen selected rice varieties for resistance to the insect and disease.

So, the take home message is: cooperation and collaboration with Crop Consultants and graduate students can go a long ways towards solving problems facing our Texas rice industry.