United States Department of Agriculture

Surveys

2013 Agricultural Chemical Use Survey - Rice Highlights

May 2014 | No. 2014-4 | Download PDF Version

NASS conducted the 2013 Agricultural Chemical Use Survey among rice producers in six states: Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas (Fig.1). These states accounted for virtually all of the rice acreage planted in the United States in the 2013 crop year. All 2013 rice chemical use data refer to these “program states.”

• Fertilizer Use
• Pesticide Use
• Pest Management Practices
• About the Survey

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Fertilizer Use

Nitrogen (N), phosphate (P₂O₅), and potash (K₂O) were the most widely used fertilizer materials on rice. Farmers applied nitrogen to 97 percent of planted acres, at an average rate of 174 pounds per acre for the 2013 crop year. They applied phosphate to 75 percent of rice planted acres, at an average rate of 54 pounds per acre, and potash to 54 percent of planted acres. (Table 1)

In 2006, the last crop year for which NASS conducted the rice chemical use survey, nitrogen was applied to 97 percent of planted acres, followed by phosphate (67 percent) and potash (54 percent).

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Pesticide Use

The pesticide active ingredients used on rice are classified in this report as herbicides, fungicides, insecticides, or other chemicals. Herbicides were used most extensively, applied to 97 percent of planted acres (Fig. 2). Fungicides and insecticides were applied to 49 and 28 percent of planted acres, respectively. Among herbicides, clomazone was the most widely used (55 percent of planted acres), followed by imazethapyr ammonium salt and propanil (Table 2). In 2006, herbicides were applied to 95 percent of planted acres.

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Pest Management Practices

The survey asked growers to report on the pest management practices they used on rice, with pests defined as weeds, insects, or diseases. Rice growers reported practices in four categories of pest management strategy:

• Prevention practices keep a pest population from infesting a crop or field through various preceding actions.
• Avoidance practices mitigate or eliminate the detrimental effects of pests through cultural measures.
• Monitoring practices involve observing or detecting pests through systematic sampling, counting, or other forms of scouting.
• Suppression practices involve controlling or reducing existing pest populations to mitigate or eliminate crop damage.

Scouting for weeds was the most widely reported monitoring practice, used on 97 percent of rice planted acres. The most used prevention practice was chopping, mowing, plowing, or burning field edges, etc. (65 percent of planted acres). Among avoidance practices, crop rotation was practiced on 46 percent of planted acres. The most used suppression practice was comparing scouting data to published information when deciding whether to take measures to manage pests (30 percent). (Table 3)

The same practices were also the top practice in their categories in 2006.

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About the Survey

The Agricultural Chemical Use Program of the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s official source of statistics about on-farm and post-harvest fertilizer and pesticide use and pest management practices. NASS conducts field crop agricultural chemical use surveys as part of the Agricultural Resource Management Survey.

NASS conducted the rice chemical use survey in fall 2013, collecting data about fertilizer and pesticide use, as well as pest management practices, for the 2013 crop year. The 2013 crop year for rice began in 2012 immediately after harvest of the previous crop and ended in 2013 with harvest of that year’s crop.