Protecting our Rice Farming and Duck Hunting Heritage Through Alternative Water Conservation and Irrigation Efficiency Practices

Here on the Grand Prairie, rice and ducks are the focus of our cultural identity and local economy.  These two rural industries are iconic to the Grand Prairie and go hand in hand. For the economy of the Grand Prairie to survive, rice and ducks must survive. The White River bottoms must remain hydrologically connected to the river, keeping wetlands of international importance alive. Local rice farmers must retain control of the water; and they must also implement new technology and best management practices for the rice industry to become sustainable.

Our groundwater is declining but the Grand Prairie Area Demonstration Project, a huge and costly water diversion project, is not the answer.  We need a solution that will empower landowners to raise rice and other crops in a sustainable manner.  There are several ways to accomplish this task:

    implement existing farm programs that conserve water

    utilize new irrigation technology

    indicate alternative crops and low water varieties

    evaluate new technology as it becomes available

Water solutions should consider stakeholder input, scientific data, economic and cultural identity, and uphold local, state, and federal water laws.

The U of A Survey Research Center conducted a Grand Prairie Landowners Survey in September of 2009. Results of the survey indicated that 58% of the landowners were favorable toward an alternative plan that involves new technology and water conservation best management practices while 25% were unsure.  A small percentage (17%), were opposed to an alternative plan to the GPADP.

I have listed below several websites for information and field trial results using center pivot and linear irrigation systems. The Circles for Rice website listed below highlights field trials that give up to a 50% water savings. Center pivot and linear irrigation systems have been around a long time but techniques and practices have been refined to the point where they provide a viable alternative to traditional rice growing. Please take a look at the websites and record your comments. Starting a dialog is our first step to finding ways to solve our water problems.

Rice Production under Center Pivots & Linears

http://www.valleyirrigationcalifornia.com/images/358/RiceBrochure_Nov09_sm.pdf

Rice Production and the Endeavor to Conserve Water

http://www.valleyirrigation.com/userfiles/file/Rice_brochure(1).pdf

Rice Under Pivot: Mechanized irrigation trial held on Arkansas farm

 By Carroll Smith, Editor, RiceFarming.com

http://www.ricefarming.com/home/issues/2009-12/2009_DecLead.html

Growing High-Yielding Rice Under a Zimmatic Pivot Irrigation System

McCarty Farm Case Study

Osceola, Arkansas, rice grower Michael McCarty is partnering with Lindsay Corporation, maker of Zimmatic irrigation systems, on one of the country’s first large-scale commercial rice research projects involving pivot irrigation systems. The pivot irrigated rice yielded competitively with flood irrigated rice and cost less per acre to produce.

http://zimmaticrice.com/case-study.pdf

Estimating Irrigation Costs

http://www.uaex.edu/Other_Areas/publications/PDF/FSA-28.pdf

Circles for Rice

Valmont Irrigation is currently overseeing research on producing rice under center pivots and linears in an effort to conserve water and energy, as well as expand the area in which rice can be produced.  This initiative is appropriately titled Circles for Rice. The website provides a link to the Circles For Rice blog. There is current information including results from field trials in Arkansas, Missouri, and Brazil.

http://www.circlesforrice.com/

Arkansas Water Law Moves Toward An Allocation/Prior Appropriation System



This picture of the pump station site and inlet canal located on the White River at DeValls Bluff, Arkansas was taken October 8, 2010. Even with decreased funding for the GPADP, work continues on a project that is designed to divert water from the White River to irrigate rice farms on the Grand Prairie.

Arguments over environmental and economic impacts of the Grand Prairie Area Demonstration Project (GPADP) still exist and the Grand Prairie project isn’t the only US Corps of Engineers project with the potential to change the White River.  As many as 11 stream diversion projects are slated for construction around the state, 4/5 of which are in the White River or its tributaries. All of these projects involve subsidies on both the state and federal level and take the control of water from the farmer and replaces it with irrigation districts that will control the price and manner of the distribution of diverted water.

Since the early 1980’s, Arkansas water law and policy have moved toward abandonment of the riparian rights doctrine, where landowners have the right to reasonable use of water resources, in favor of an allocation/prior appropriation system similar to those in western states where a government or quasi-government agency is overseeing allocations.

A major complaint among landowners opposed to the project is the loss of control of water. Although the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission (ANRC) will be the organization charged with controlling the amount of groundwater that will be pumped in the region of the Grand Prairie Area Demonstration Project, a recent survey conducted by the University of Arkansas Survey Research Center showed that about 60 percent of the area’s landowners who claim to know about the project, believe that the landowners (56%) or no one (3.7%) will exercise the control of pumping groundwater. Just over 22% of landowners correctly identify the ANRC as the agent controlling the pumping of groundwater from the Grand Prairie’s Alluvial and Sparta aquifers. Conflicting survey results such as this example show that landowners within the GPADP lack accurate information about the project.

The purpose of the Water for Grand Prairie Farmers blog is to help landowners understand the ramifications of the GPADP and to seek alternative solutions that will keep the federal government from spending money on a costly project that will not protect our aquifers and precious wetlands. Visit the blog often for current information about GPADP and alternative solutions that include water conservation and irrigation efficiency applications.

Leveraging USDA Conservation for Water Conservation in the Grand Prairie Region

Several United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Bill conservation programs appear to have the capacity to both address the need for water conservation in the Grand Prairie region, and help area farmers be more productive and profitable. Below are some ideas for leveraging some of these programs for water conservation in Arkansas.

The programs can be even more effective if USDA will agree to target its programs to achieve water conservation in this region. Some options:

• the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) could identify water conservation as a priority resource of concern in the Grand Prairie region;
• the NRCS could set aside funds ear-marked for water conservation incentives in the region;
• the USDA Farm Service Agency could identify the area as a conservation priority area with respect to the Conservation Reserve Program;
• the FSA could work with state and local sponsors to create a Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program focused on water conservation for this part of Arkansas.   

Environmental Quality Incentives Program

The program provides incentives for farmers to adopt farming and ranching practices and systems that address natural resource concerns, including water conservation. Those incentives typically cover a share of the costs (50 to 75%) of putting in place practices or systems, and in some cases a portion of any lost income that could result to the farmer from adopting the practice. Some practices that EQIP could fund:

Upgrading on-farm irrigation equipment to more efficient technologies (for instance, changing from flood irrigation to center pivot irrigation technology).

Installing water meters on wells and irrigation equipment to better measure water use.

Shifting from water-intensive crops to resource-conserving/water conserving crops (or broadening crop rotations to include some water-conserving crops.)

Transition costs (planting grass, fence and water facilities) to go from crop production to grass-based livestock production.

Transition costs (and foregone income) to shift from irrigated to dryland crop production.

Transition costs (and foregone income) to reduce the amount of irrigation water used.

Building on-farm ponds to store rainfall runoff that could be used for irrigation.

Arkansas was allocated about $23 million in USDA EQIP funds in 2009. The list of EQIP practices funded in Arkansas in 2009 is at http://www.ar.nrcs.usda.gov/news/ar_eqip_09.html

Conservation Stewardship Program

The program rewards farmers who have adopted the highest level of conservation systems, and who are willing to do more to boost soil, water, wildlife, or other conservation values. Farmers looking to sign up for the program must address some of the designated priority resource concerns in their area, so it would be important to have water quantity/water conservation as one of those designated resource concerns in the Grand Prairie area. USDA is in the process of obligating FY 2009 funds for the program, but it is a growing program and soon to be the second largest USDA working lands program behind EQIP.

Wetlands Reserve Program

The Wetlands Reserve Program is used to take currently cropped areas that were formerly wetlands, restore the wetland habitat and provide long-term protection for the wetland. It could be used to take irrigated (or non-irrigated) land out of crop production. The restored wetlands could provide water recharge benefits for area groundwater, in addition to providing wildlife habitat. Arkansas was allocated $6.6 million for the program in 2008.

Conservation Reserve Program

The program pays farmers who agree to take cropland out of production, plant grassland mixtures (and in some cases trees), and leave the land out of production for at least 10 years. There are ‘whole field’ enrollments, which happen when USDA at the national level decides to have one. One key would be to include the Grand Prairie area in the Farm Service Agency’s state priority area, so landowners in the area would get additional points in their signup score.

A drawback of the CRP is it only pays rental rates based on average DRYLAND rental rates in a county, so it is very difficult to get landowners to enroll higher value irrigated land in the program. However, states and USDA have created Conservation Reserve Enhancement Programs to address water conservation and other needs, and they can address the problem by using state or local dollars as leverage to boost the CRP payments up to where they are attractive to farmers with irrigated acres. For example, in Nebraska, where they are trying to take irrigated cropland out of production to address a water-short watershed, the USDA and state department of natural resources created a CREP where state dollars are used to provide an upfront bonus for landowners willing to take irrigated land out of production, and federal CRP dollars are used to pay for a share of the cost of planting native grassland mixes and to pay for ten years worth of rental payments (at dryland rates). The other big advantage of a CREP is that they operate under “continuous signup”, so you don’t have to wait for a national signup. Once the program is approved, a landowner can sign up at any time and the contract can be approved.    

Check out the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service web site for Arkansas, they have some helpful information and an annual report that will explain how the programs are now being used in Arkansas. The reports are at: http://www.ar.nrcs.usda.gov/news/publications.html

Grand Prarie Area Demonstration Project

What is the solution to the Grand Prairie's declining water table? The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACOE), in cooperation with the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission (ANRC), determined that the solution was to acquire more water instead of better management of available water by constructing a massive and costly irrigation project, the Grand Prairie Area Demonstration Project (GPADP). 

The construction of the GPADP and other planned irrigation projects will move the state towards abandonment of the riparian rights doctrine, where landowners have the right to reasonable use of water resources. Future irrigation projects will require an allocation/prior appropriation system similar to those in western states where a government or quasi-government agency oversees allocations.

This shift in Arkansas water law, will support construction of 11 stream diversion projects slated for construction around the state, 4/5 of which are planned in the White River or its tributaries.  All of these projects involve subsidies on both the state and federal level. They also involve diversion of water from water bodies, such as the White River, resulting in negative impacts to those ecosystems.  The irrigation projects take the control of water from the farmer and replace it with irrigation districts that will control the price and distribution of diverted water. 

A major complaint among landowners opposed to the project is the loss of control of water. Although the ANRC will be the organization charged with controlling the amount of groundwater that will be pumped in the region of the GPADP, a recent survey conducted by the University of Arkansas Survey Research Center (UASRC) showed that about 60 percent of the area’s landowners who claim to know about the project, believe that the landowners (56%) or no one (3.7%) will exercise the control of pumping groundwater. Just over 22% of landowners correctly identify the ANRC as the agent controlling the pumping of groundwater from the Grand Prairie and Sparta aquifers. Conflicting survey results such as this example show that landowners within the GPADP lack accurate information about the project.

 

A Short History of Rice Farming on the Grand Prairie

Arkansas’ Grand Prairie Region

The Grand Prairie stretches from Dewitt, Arkansas at its southern extremity, northward to Wattensaw Wildlife Management Area near DeValls Bluff.

At the turn of the century, most of the original prairie land was not being farmed. The soil’s claypan made tillage difficult and reduced yields for deeper rooted crops making the land suitable only for haying and grazing livestock.  By 1904, it was realized that the shallow layer of clay made the soil suitable for rice production by enabling the soil to hold surface water.  Well drilling technology for rice production was soon expanded to more than 100,000 acres by 1920 with more groundwater being pumped from the Alluvial Aquifer that could be naturally recharged.

The Rice and Duck Capital of the World – For How Long?

The region’s first water storage reservoir was build along Elm Prong Mill Bayou just south of Stuttgart by A.A. Tindall. Mr. Tindall built the water storage to help irrigate his rice. Thousands of migrating waterfowl began using the reservoir after feeding in the nearby rice fields. Sportsmen and women, as well as the ducks, started flocking to the Grand Prairie region.  With 150,000 acres of rice and 2 – 3 million wintering ducks estimated to be in the area, the Grand Prairie quickly became known as “the rice and duck capital of the world”.

The abundance of groundwater buffered the effects of the Great Depression and the Drought and Stuttgart, Arkansas soon became the region’s largest incorporated town.  Stuttgart became an agribusiness hub servicing the farmers of the Grand Prairie.  During the 1970’s and 1980’s, the allotment system for rice was abolished and rice acreage jumped from 200,000 acres to over 1.5 million acres putting even more pressure on the already unsustainable pumping of groundwater.

Presently, the harvest and sale of rice and other agricultural commodities annually garners a multi-million dollar economic bounty for the region, and, once harvested, these same fields provide exceptional recreational opportunity for thousands of waterfowl hunters. Economically, rice is still the most important crop to the region, but unsustainable use of groundwater for the past 100 years has put the Grand Prairie’s economy and cultural identity at risk.