JONESBORO, AR -- This morning, Jennifer James, a rice farmer from Newport, Arkansas, and member of the USA Rice Farmers Board of Directors, testified before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. The Farm Bill field hearing, specifically the “2023 Farm Bill: Perspectives from the Natural State,” took place on the campus of Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.
Invited at the request of Ranking Member Senator John Boozman (R-AR), James highlighted the USA Rice 2023 Farm Bill priorities for the commodity, conservation, trade, and crop insurance titles.
“Title I, specifically the Price Loss Coverage program, is really our true safety net, and is critically important because it levels the playing field for rice that is highly subsidized by our global competitors,” said James. “U.S. farm families cannot compete in such a distorted world market without U.S. farm policy, and PLC helps to ensure that more of the world’s rice is produced in the United States.”
James went further, saying, “Unfortunately, PLC is no longer adequate. Reference prices do not provide the level of assistance needed for an effective safety net for rice producers. Current PLC reference prices for rice were established based on 2012 costs of production.”
She also called for payment limitations to be reviewed and adjusted to reflect today’s farms.
James highlighted the importance of Farm Bill conservation programs for rice farmers and informed the Committee of the need for these programs to remain voluntary, incentive-based, and locally-led.
She noted how vital Farm Bill trade provisions are to USA Rice, particularly the Market Access Program and the Foreign Market Development program, and the U.S. rice industry’s success with these programs in more than 30 international markets.
Further, James told the committee of USA Rice’s work to improve crop insurance for rice farmers but noted that in no way does crop insurance replace farm safety net or conservation programs.
James also underscored the ongoing crisis in the rice industry given the financial situation rice farmers are facing this crop year, and mentioned two letters that have been sent to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack requesting assistance.
“Currently, rice has been disproportionately affected by steep increases in input costs and has not seen a corresponding increase in prices. USA Rice has sent two letters to Secretary Vilsack asking for financial assistance for rice farmers,” said James. “Our current estimate is that rice acres will fall to 2.2 million acres this year – a 27 percent decline in the historical average of 3 million acres. With acres declining so fast, one must question how and for how long the unique infrastructure needed to handle and process rice can survive.
“We think standing by our nation’s critical rice industry is a worthy investment, and we hope you will stand with us…We cannot afford to lose the domestic rice industry.”
In response to a question from Senator Boozman on the outlook for the 2023 crop year, James answered: “Your question was about next season and, today, I am worried about this season. Very drastically, as I stated in my brief testimony, rice farmers in the U.S. have not seen the increase in the price of rice as other commodities are enjoying. We are in a critical situation with a reduction in acres [and] that means less hundredweights to go through our driers, to go through our mills, to put on the shelf to remain viable in the marketplace, to maintain market share in our markets in the world. Recent economic analysis is showing that we are going to have a drop in net farm income of about $880,000 per farm in 2022. Ten of the 15 representative rice farms studied are going to show a loss. It’s a very serious situation and I know that any assistance that might come in 2022 will not make us whole, but it might make us start looking at 2023.”
James was joined by other Arkansas witnesses representing cotton, soybeans, conservation, forestry, and specialty crops.
Go
here to read James’ full written testimony, and
here to watch the full hearing.