California Rice Farmers Struggle with Drought

Experts SayNearly 25 percent of California's $5 Billion Rice Crop Will Be Lost This Year Due to Lack of Water

while analysts say the loss is not a crisis just yet, at least one rice producer is ready to call it a day.

"If we keep going through this drought, it may make us quit and sell the ranch," said Sherry Polit,who grows organic rice with her familyon 1,500 acres in the Northern California town of Maxwell.

With surface water sources drying up from lack of rain, the problem for rice producers is having enough water available to fill rice paddies, said Jim Morris, communications manager for theCalifornia Rice Commission.It's not a case of the crop being damaged, he said, so much as it's been reduced as farmers cut back on planting.

To try and make money, some California rice producers have turned to selling their water sources, rather than planting a crop this year, said Bruce Linquist, an agricultural researcher at the University of California, Davis. While some farmers could afford to leave their land unplanted, others have opted to just sell water rights.

California grows most of the country's medium-grain rice.It also grows most of the short-grain rice used for sushi in the U.S. The state exports about half of its crop, mostly to Asia, and employs around 25,000 people.

But even with the drop-off in rice production in California, it will likely have little effect on the global markets, said Leslie Butler, a professor of agricultural economics at UC Davis. Rice is a crop that's easily stored, and there's "plenty" still in storage from previous years, Butler said.

Source: CNBC

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