Rice study explores high yield and cooking quality of new strain

One way the project aims to conserve irrigation water is by developing a new rice strain whose yield would be high enough that a second crop would not be required for commercial viability. The rice study team is breeding cultivars for various characteristics, including the following:

• High yield: an ultra high-yielding rice cultivar that would require 10-14 days longer to mature than short-season cultivars and would allow for profitability with only one crop, thereby reducing water usage.
  • The study has found that four hybrid strains grown at the Beaumont test station had higher grain yield than Cocodrie, the most common variety of rice grown in Texas. The highest yielding hybrid strain produced 28 percent more than Cocodrie.
  • The study found that five of the hybrid strains grown at the Eagle Lake test station yielded more than Cocodrie. The highest yielding LCRA/SAWS strain yielded 8 percent more than that of Cocodrie.
• Cooking quality: the new LCRA/SAWS strain needs to show similarities to popular rice varieties to be commercially acceptable.
  • About 76 percent of the LCRA/SAWS strains tasted and cooked similar to typical Texas long-grain rice varieties, according to DNA analyses. Texas long grains tend to be relatively less sticky when cooked.

View the full report.

Cost estimates of agricultural conservation measures are refined

The agricultural conservation team has refined cost estimates of structural measures for conserving water in the irrigation delivery system. If the agricultural conservation measures were implemented then the cost would be $129 per acre-foot of water saved.

This value incorporates construction, operations and maintenance costs, in 2006 dollars. The following measures and their associated unit cost are part of the conservation strategy.

• Regrading and lining the two major canals leading away from the river pumping plant in the Lakeside Irrigation Division - $51/acre-foot
• Installing new check gates, which control water depth - $53/acre-foot
• Controlling vegetation in canals - $119/acre-foot
• Constructing conservation ponds - $140/acre foot
• Replacing turnouts (structures to divert water from canals to rice fields) with new metered ones, controlled from a central station - $146/acre-foot
• Removing unused turnouts - $114/acre-foot
• Rehabilitating canals with high water losses - $146/acre-foot

View the Conservation Strategies report.