By Carah Hart

An agronomist says rice planting is moving at a record pace in Arkansas, but drought conditions are starting to create challenges.

The USDA reports 61 percent of the state’s rice crop has been planted, with 30 percent already emerged, both well ahead of average.

“It’s excellent for getting planting done, but it’s giving us no end of issues,” Jarrod Hardke with University of Arkansas Extension tells Brownfield.

He says the dry, windy conditions are making it difficult for rice to emerge evenly.

“We’re not even to the window where rice needs a lot of water, but it’s got to have enough moisture to germinate,” he says. “I’ve gotten calls from farmers saying they’ve got rice sitting in dry dirt right beside plants that are already up. What do I do now?”

To compensate, Hardke says farmers are flushing fields much earlier than usual, using limited irrigation water a month to a month and a half ahead of schedule.

“The water then just adds some more cost to the whole grand scheme of things.”

Some growers are already switching acres from rice to soybeans or other crops to manage those expenses. Ultimately, he says the drought might continue to reduce rice acres to one of the lowest years on record in the largest rice producing state in the country.

“We could still have 800,000 plus acres, sure, but we’re still talking, one of the more dramatic drops on record, not the greatest single year drop ever; that was 2010 to 2011. But we’re getting down to levels that most farming today have zero recollection of.”

The U.S. Drought Monitor has nearly all of Arkansas experiencing drought, with more than 13 percent in extreme drought, both worse than the previous week.

Hardke says there is some moisture in the forecast later this month into early May, but it might be too late for some rice fields as the growing season continues.

Published Date: April 21, 2026