Nearly all rice grown in the United States comes from six states: Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Texas. These states share two key advantages: flat terrain and abundant water for flooding fields during the growing season. Together, they produce enough rice that 40 to 45 percent of the total U.S. crop is exported each year, with the rest going to domestic food products, beer brewing, and pet food.
Arkansas Dominates U.S. Rice Production
Arkansas is by far the largest rice-producing state, accounting for the biggest share of total U.S. acreage. In the 2018/19 crop year, Arkansas planted roughly 1.4 million acres of rice, a 24 percent jump from the previous year. That single increase represented 58 percent of the entire national acreage expansion that season. The state’s eastern half, stretching across the Mississippi River Delta, provides the flat, water-rich landscape rice needs. Soils there range from silt loams to heavy clays, both of which hold water well enough to sustain the flooded paddies rice depends on.
Long-grain rice makes up the bulk of Arkansas production. This is the type most Americans picture when they think of everyday white rice: slender grains that cook up fluffy and separate. Arkansas farmers typically grow their crop on silt loam and clay soils, each requiring different water management. Clay soils need more pumping capacity (around 20 gallons per minute per acre) because water moves through them differently than through silt loams, which can get by with 10 to 15 gallons per minute per acre depending on whether a natural hardpan layer sits below the surface.
California Grows a Different Kind of Rice
California is the second-largest rice state, with plantings that crossed 506,000 acres in 2018/19, only the second time since 2013 that the state broke the half-million-acre mark. Most California rice grows in the Sacramento Valley, a broad, flat stretch north of Sacramento where summer temperatures are hot and irrigation water flows from Sierra Nevada snowmelt.
What sets California apart is variety. While the southern states focus on long-grain rice, California specializes in medium- and short-grain varieties. Short-grain rice is primarily a California crop in the U.S. These stickier, starchier grains are essential for sushi, risotto, and many Asian cuisines. The state’s climate and growing conditions suit these varieties particularly well, giving California a distinct niche in the national rice market.
The Gulf Coast and Lower Mississippi States
Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi round out the southern rice belt, each contributing meaningful acreage alongside Arkansas. Louisiana has a long rice-growing tradition concentrated in the southwestern part of the state, where flat coastal prairies and plentiful rainfall create natural conditions for paddy farming. Louisiana grows mostly long-grain rice but also produces medium-grain varieties and several specialty types, including jasmine-style rice (marketed under the name Jazzman), aromatic Della rice, and even purple-grain varieties.
Texas rice production centers on the Gulf Coast, particularly in the counties stretching from Houston south toward Corpus Christi. Mississippi’s rice acreage sits in the Delta region of the state’s western side, benefiting from the same rich alluvial soils that make Arkansas so productive. Missouri, the northernmost of the six major states, grows rice in its southeastern Bootheel region, a low-lying area that geologically belongs to the Mississippi Delta.
Why These Regions and Not Others
Rice needs flat land that can be flooded and drained on a schedule. That requirement limits production to areas with level topography, heavy or layered soils that resist water seepage, and reliable water sources for irrigation. The vast majority of U.S. rice acreage relies on gravity irrigation systems, where water flows across the field surface using the natural slope of the land. Rice has the largest share of gravity-irrigated acres of any U.S. crop, a direct reflection of its flooding requirements.
The Mississippi River floodplain checks every box. Centuries of river deposits created deep, flat layers of silt and clay soil across eastern Arkansas, western Mississippi, southeastern Missouri, and parts of Louisiana. These soils naturally hold water. California’s Sacramento Valley offers a similar combination: flat terrain, clay-rich soils, and a massive irrigation infrastructure fed by mountain runoff. Outside these specific geographies, the U.S. landscape generally lacks the right mix of flatness, soil type, and water access to make rice farming economically viable.
Wild Rice in the Upper Midwest
Wild rice is a separate story entirely. Despite sharing a name, wild rice (Zizania palustris) is not the same species as cultivated rice. It’s an aquatic grass native to North America and the only cereal grain that originated on this continent. It grows naturally in the shallow lakes, marshes, and streams of northern Minnesota, where it has been harvested by Indigenous communities for centuries.
Minnesota recognizes wild rice as its official state grain, and the plant has been documented in 52 percent of the state’s counties. While it’s most associated with the northern part of the state, southern varieties can grow up to 14 feet tall. Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge in McGregor, Minnesota, maintains a wild rice-producing lake that also serves as protected habitat for migratory birds. Some wild rice is also cultivated in paddies in Minnesota and neighboring states, but the hand-harvested lake variety remains culturally and economically important in the region.
How U.S. Rice Reaches the Market
The domestic rice industry splits roughly in half between home use and exports. About 40 to 45 percent of the U.S. rice crop leaves the country each year, making exports a critical piece of the industry’s economics. Domestically, rice goes into direct food products, processed foods, beer production, and pet food. The long-grain rice from southern states and the medium- and short-grain rice from California serve different markets, which is why both regions remain economically important despite Arkansas producing far more total volume.