LA Drought Continues

Long weeks of drought in Louisiana could mean the loss of tens of thousands of acres of rice. LSU Extension Service rice specialist Dr. Johnny Saichuk says up to 50,000 acres of rice are at risk in the harshly dry conditions. Saichuk says the rice problem is especially bad in southwestern
Louisiana, where saltwater intrusion is aggravating the problem. (The state's drought is now the worst on record since 1895.) Saichuk says the state would need to get about 10 inches of rain over the next two weeks, in order to save all rice acres. He says that's not in the forecast, so rice farmers face deciding which acres to save, and which to sacrifice.