US rice growers go against the grain

On a broad fertile plain near Sacramento, ringed by snow-capped
mountains, submerged rice fields shimmer in the sunlight and a small
yellow plane buzzes 40ft above them.

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Rice-planting is done from a great height in California

It comes into land and a conveyor belt starts up, carrying thousands of
small light brown husks from a truck into a funnel-shaped container.

The funnel is lowered over the plane and its contents allowed to tumble into the hollow back-end.

The husks are, in fact, rice kernels, and at this farm in Northern
California they sow rice seeds from the air, as they have done for 80
years. They are planting early this year.

The plane - guided
by GPS - makes several low passes over the fields. Then, just like a
crop-duster, it sprays its cargo of rice kernels into the water below.

Satellite navigation means the seeding runs do not overlap, so the rice seeds are not overcrowded or too far apart.

The technique allows these farmers to plant a large amount of rice
quickly. In turn, about four months from now, it can all be harvested
together.

It's cost effective for them. Still, Zachary Dennis, whose family has
farmed here for three generations, says they must innovate to survive.

"We have diversified. We grow trees, almonds and walnuts, and wheat," he says.

"But first and foremost, I'm a rice farmer and I will try to stick with this as long as I can.

"A few years ago, we would not have been able to make it with the
prices we were getting," he says, citing petroleum, insurance and
employment costs. "It's hard."

Grains and strains

Higher rice prices help farmers offset increasing production costs, and
global rice prices have risen 20% since January. Yet even though the US
is the world's fourth-largest rice exporter, California's crop does not
feel the full benefit of the price rise.

That's because California grows short- and medium-grain
rice, while 80% of global rice production and consumption is of the
long-grain variety. (Arkansas, on the other hand, America's largest
rice-growing state, produces long-grain).

When people talk of global shortages of rice, they usually mean shortages of long-grain rice.

So could California simply export more rice to the countries where it is in great demand? It's not as simple as it sounds.

The major problem is culture. While Californian-style short- or
medium-grain rice is a basic ingredient in sushi (and Japan buys much
Californian rice), many other countries where rice is a staple prefer
long-grain.

Whole cuisines have developed around this variety,
which is cooked differently and can have a different texture and
flavour. Cultural differences that stretch back thousands of years are
not easy to break.

Secondly, long-grain rice prefers a tropical climate, not the more arid environment of California's rice fields.

However, it is possible to grow long-grain rice here, and Tim Johnson,
president of the California Rice Commission, says higher global prices
offer his members an opportunity.

"Up to this point, growing long-grain was not as
profitable as maybe growing medium-grain rice," he says. "I expect with
the higher long-grain prices, we will see more acres in California go
towards long-grain."

Sky-high prices

The growing production of ethanol is another factor affecting
California's rice growers. With more farmland given over to corn to
turn into biofuels, less is available for rice cultivation, so forcing
prices up.

And then there's the basic reality that no increase in
production by California's rice growers is going to make much of a dent
in world demand.

But Tim Johnson believes higher global demand for rice, and the
problems this has caused in some places, is a sign of things to come.

"It's really a wake-up call that the everyday consumer can appreciate," he says.

"In the world, we have taken our food supplies for granted.

"Now with different cropping techniques, the loss of farmland and
changing weather patterns, the once huge stocks of rice, wheat and corn
that were the norm in the 1970s... they're just not there."

The implication is that we should not expect rice prices, and prices of other basic food crops, to come down soon.

Back on the farm, on a break from flying rice-seeding planes, one of
the pilots, Rick Richter, is making the most of higher prices.

"We never have gotten what we should be getting for
these crops, with the rising input [costs] and the work that goes into
it," he says.

"So now we are getting up there, we are going to make a
decent living like everybody else, and you know, that's what we have
been waiting for."