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USA Rice Producers' Summary
Observations on this page stem from interviews with rice producers
located in Arkansas, Louisiana, and California. To view the complete
interview report click on the Rice Reports
link.
Our interviews asked rice growers to describe their major obstacles
to growing a hearty rice crop.  Overwhelmingly,
weeds were their predominant concern. California growers indicated
that they combat a host of weed species such as river bull rush,
nut sedges, barnyard grass, and water grasses. Arkansas and Louisiana
growers' weed issues centered on red rice.
In line with rice growers' production concerns, discussions on
rice biotechnology focused on two GMO rice products: Roundup Ready
(RR) rice and Liberty Link (LL) rice. Both are herbicide-resistant
rice varieties that control weeds. For the 2002 growing season,
neither GMO rice product had been released for commercial use.
One commercially available herbicide-resistant rice variety that
Arkansas and Louisiana growers described is Clearfield rice. Clearfield
rice is distinguished from RR and LL rice because it is not a GMO
- it was developed using biotechnology, but not using recombinant
DNA technology.  In
2002, herbicide-tolerant Clearfield varieties CL-121 and CL-141
were available to rice farmers for commercial use; herbicide-resistant
CL-161 will be available for commercial use in 2003.
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