Water gives life to rice industry

Water-flooded fields are a sign that Northern California’s rice industry is alive and well. But in a drought, is all that water being wasted?

In fact, rice crops use less water than many other Northern California crops. For example,according to Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District figures, the amount of applied water – that is, how much water goes into a field  – required to grow rice is 4.8 acre-feet of water applied per acre; almonds require 5.3 acre-feet; walnuts, 5.5; and alfalfa hay and pasture grasses require 6.2.

Put another way, “rice uses less water than on the average urban lawn in Sacramento,” Tim Johnson, president and CEO of the California Rice Commission, said.

Lester Messina, water resources coordinator for the Glenn County Agriculture Department, this year 84,000 acres of rice will be grown the county. That is about average for the last 10 years, he noted. Colusa County officials were not available for comment.

Big business

Every year, California farmers grow about 525,000 acres of rice, yielding some 2 million tons. More than 95 percent of California’s medium-grain japonica rice is grown within 100 miles of Sacramento.

Johnson said that out of 400 crops grown in California, “rice is always with the top 20 crops in the state.”

Sixty percent of California rice is consumed in the United States. The rest goes to countries in Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

Colusa County is the largest rice producer in the state, with 155,000 acres dedicated to the crop. Glenn County has 84,000 acres in rice and even Tehama County has 800 acres, according to

Johnson.

Rice farmer Joe Carrancho, president and manger of J.A. Carrancho Farms Inc., works 1,400 acres of rice of his own and about 1,400 other acres in Colusa and Glenn counties.

The main reason more rice is grown in Colusa County is because of the soils and topography.

Because rice is an aquatic plant, it grows best on level land in heavy clay soils that allow water to pool.

Carrancho said, “Other crops use more water than rice does” because in other crops the water “penetrates the ground and is absorbed by the roots.”

Dennis Michum of the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District noted that “the soils are tighter (clay) in the south part of the district and looser (sandy) in the north part of the district.”

Water flow

Glenn County rice farmer Larry Maben said that initially rice fields require 4 to 6 inches of water for the seed to mature. Just before harvest, eight to 10 inches of water is required, Maben said.

Farmers use a constant flow of canal water. That means the same water is used many times – for a variety of crops – before it reaches the Sacramento-San Joaquin river delta.

Carrancho said by the time the water gets to him, it already has been used 10 times or more.

“Water is not wasted here,” he said. “It is very precious to us, and it is watched very closely.” He also said, “rice farmers have regulated themselves for years.”

Concerns about passing along fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides to the next farm are addressed through careful use.

Maben and Carrancho said the chemicals rice farmers use generally do not have long life spans. In fact, the water that goes back into the canal system “is purer going out at the end of the season than at the beginning,” Maben said.

Carrancho said, “We have to make sure the water is not polluted, so people in Sacramento can drink it.”

“Pesticides have specific hold periods,” Messina said, and farmers must take classes and be certified in the proper use of chemicals.

Wildlife habitat

Water in rice fields serves a dual purpose. Besides providing an environment for rice to grow, flooded rice fields provide food and breeding grounds for roughly 235 wildlife species.

Mike Wolder of the Sacramento Wildlife Refuge said many species stay throughout fall and spring and others use it for nesting habitats.

The California Rice Commission has joined with several conservation organizations to sustain about $1 billion in habitat value free to the state, Johnson said.

An estimated 10 to 12 million waterfowl, such as ducks and geese, along the Pacific Flyway take advantage of wetland habitats, including rice fields, every year, according to www.calrice.org.

Wolder said, “rice fields are extremely valuable habitat. Rice is one of the most wildlife-friendly crops and it’s a combination of wetlands and rice fields” that support birds and many other animals.