Texas Rice Planted Acres on Decline; Threat of Rice Delphacid Looms

By Blair Fannin

Texas rice producers enter a new crop year with a watchful eye on prices, yield potential and the threat of rice delphacid, an invasive planthopper that wreaked havoc on the 2025 crop, according to Texas A&M AgriLife experts.

“The Texas rice crop is showing great progress as we reach the midpoint of the growing season,” said Sam Rustom, Ph.D., Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service agronomist and assistant professor in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Soil and Crop Science. “Most of our farmers planted early in March, and thankfully so, considering April and early May have been extremely wet and planting windows were slim. The crop currently looks fantastic statewide.”

However, planted acres have been on the decline due to low market prices. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has estimated 125,000 planted acres in Texas, but Rustom said that could fall to 100,000 acres when final planted acreage numbers are released.

“Acreage reductions are not limited to Texas and are following larger nationwide trends,” he said. “Other rice-producing states like Arkansas and Mississippi are expected to be down to around 850,000 acres (historically 1.4 million acres) and 50,000 acres (historically 137,000 acres), respectively. These acreage reductions can be attributed to low market prices because of global oversupply, primarily due to increased production and increased competition from India, Thailand and South America over the past 10 years.”

In this Mesonet Weather Report, Oklahoma state climatologist Gary McManus explains how drought conditions are expanding across the state, while new rain chances may offer some relief. Get the latest Oklahoma weather outlook, drought updat