So that's me in a rice field near Stuttgart, Arkansas last week. I was there for a rice field day put on by the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. People from all parts of the community gathered at the Grand Prairie Center for free give-aways, informational booths, provided lunch, and rice plot tours. It was really a great networking event! Throughout the summer I have realized how important it is to reach out to anyone and everyone around you. If you're on a plane you should definitely introduce yourself to the person next to you - you never know who you are sitting by!!
Above is a rice plot. We talked about different rice varieties; which ones prosper in a range of temperatures, which ones battle disease well, which ones support high yields, etc.
Rice is a crop that is flooded - we actually want standing water (which is a disaster for most other crops). The piled up dirt surrounding the plots are called levees. They support the water and guide it along with gravity from the highest point in a field to the lowest point.
The leaves pictured above feature a disease called sheath blight. If this disease takes over the crop, a grower would be facing yield loss of up to 25% or greater! Not only do dollar signs raise a red flag, but the quality of the rice is also compromised after facing disease.
I'm sure glad there are chemical corporations out there to safely protect our food, right? ;)
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