CALIFORNIA
Field Crops A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ®
As part of ongoing research at this Colusa County rice field, farmer Kurt Richter is working with researchers and advisors to test drip irrigation for growing rice to reduce water use. Rice works as a rotational crop for processing tomatoes, which already uses subsurface drip tape. While the trial shows promise, Richter says, the method may not work for all rice farms.
Drip-irrigation trials show promise for rice farming By Vicky Boyd
“This is not a practical way to raise rice across the valley,” Richter said. “This is a niche situation where we’re looking for a profitable rotation crop for processing tomatoes.” The system’s success depends on soil texture and several other factors. In Richter’s case, he tried it on sandier soils that are not the best for rice but good for row crops. He said he wouldn’t even think of doing it on fields unsuitable for row crops or with heavier soils, such as on the Sacramento Valley’s west side. Initially, Richter considered row rice, a system popular in the Mid-South. Growers there plant rice on raised beds, much like they do tomatoes or melons, and furrow irrigate them. After visiting farms in Arkansas and Louisiana that grow row rice, he ruled it out because it didn’t save water. Instead, Richter looked at buried drip irrigation, also known as subsurface drip irri- gation. He said he was familiar with the improved irrigation efficiency it brought to the processing tomato sector, which already had the infrastructure, such as filters, in place. With the move to drip for rice also came changes to several other practices traditionally used in flooded rice. Rice producers typically shank aqua ammonia fertilizer into soil before flooding and planting. In the trial, because the drip field wasn’t going under a permanent flood, the fertilizer program was changed to include ammonia sulfate, a water-soluble dry fertilizer.
Following 2022 when he essentially received no surface water deliveries, Colusa County rice farmer Kurt Richter wanted to test whether growing rice on buried drip irrigation would be feasible in 2023. “Why would anyone want to do something as ridiculous as this? The answer is the drought of 2022. That’s when the idea first hatched,” said Richter, who farms row crops. “There was no prospect in sight that the situation was going to improve. Then the question became: Can we grow rice with less water, and how do we keep the industry alive?” The unusually wet winter in 2022-23 prompted him to change focus. The goal then be- came testing whether rice could be a profitable rotational crop for processing tomatoes that used the same buried drip irrigation tape, usually left in the ground for five to nine years. Last year was a proof of concept, and Richter—who worked with drip manufacturer Netafim and a team of research and crop advisors from Colusa County Farm Supply— learned from the challenges. “What we were trying to do was make this thing simple,” said Jim Cook, Colusa County Farm Supply research director. “All of the drip irrigation data globally shows you how it started and how it finished, but nothing in between.” The system proved promising enough that Richter plans to increase the trial to 32 acres of rice on drip this season from last year’s 8 acres. He was quick to point out that drip irri- gation for rice isn’t suited to every farm.
See RICE, Page 13
12 Ag Alert April 3, 2024
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