USA Rice - Ducks Unlimited Rice Stewardship Partnership
Rice Stewardship's vision is to conserve three of the nation’s important natural resources: working ricelands, water, and wetland wildlife. Ensuring adequate supplies of water is fundamental to sustaining the future of rice. More than three million acres of rice across the country provide both a working wetland growing crops to feed the world and valuable habitat for waterfowl. This effort combines public and private resources by harnessing the power of USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, and their Regional Conservation Partnership Program. The latest endeavor is an $80 million Advancing Markets for Producers grant, in which Rice Stewardship will continue to prioritize ricelands, water, and wildlife.
Engagement Targets
Notes: (1) Minor fluctuations in the number of retained growers is expected from year to year. These fluctuations may be due to year-over-year crop rotation effects or other factors beyond the control of the project. Enrolled acres represent the total number of acres on an individual farm in a specific year. The ability to report enrolled acres is based on the Fieldprint Project Standard requirement that individual growers enrolled in projects enter at least 10% of the acres managed for a specific crop. (2) Entered acres represent the actual number of enrolled acres for which data is entered in the Fieldprint Platform for analysis.
Objectives
In 2024, we added more acreage and producers to our rice projects. We pre-approved all of our PCSC producers and before the disruption, practices were set to start in FY25. Objective will be edited after grant plan is revised. For 2025, we expect to have growers and acres entered into the platform pending no further grant disruptions.
We pre-approved all of our PCSC producers and before the disruption, practices were set to start in FY25. Objective will be edited after grant plan is revised. The project is still in progress and no update due to continued project delays. We expect to have full reporting for the 2026 growing season.