NEW ORLEANS [AP] — Louisiana rice farmers are feeling after effects of last summer’s hurricanes.
Nathan Crisp, director of Louisiana’s branch of the National Agricultural Statistics Service, says farmers weren’t able to plant as many acres as they’d wanted because of the effects of salt-water intrusion from hurricanes Gustav and Ike.
The agency estimates acreage in the state at 420,000 acres. That’s 50,000 fewer than in 2008 and 60,000 fewer than farmers said in March that they’d hoped to plant this year.
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Nationwide, rice acreage is up slightly, to 3 million acres.
