Rice Farmers See A ‘regular, Normal’ Year

By Ching Lee

Thanks to improved rainfall and recovering reservoirs, farmers in Northern California say they are back to planting a more-normal amount of rice this season, after water shortages forced them to reduce production the last two years.

But the additional plantings come as the global rice market is struggling, with large supplies weighing down prices and farmers in more parts of the world growing medium-grain rice, directly competing with California farmers.

Concerns about rice prices have not slowed planting activities in the Sacramento Valley, though. All across the region, growers are “going six ways from Sunday and working every single field,” said Sean Doherty, who farms rice in Colusa, Sutter and Yolo counties.

“We’re back to a regular, normal year,” he said.

Despite periodic rain in recent weeks, Butte County grower Josh Sheppard said he’s happy with the progress he’s made, noting that rain is normal during planting and that the downpours have not caused significant delays. He said he expects to be finished by the end of the week.