Interesting story, in lieu of the apparent rice shortage. Texas rice farmers going under... [View All]

[Dover]

Tx. land owners being paid to take their land OUT of production...
and some are using this as a selling point, placing their land on the market to developers and individuals with this built in little fringe benefit. Say good-bye to prime farm/rice land and to the farmer and farm economies that are built up around them.


Tenant/USDA issue devastates rice farmers

Worth Lucas of Matagorda County has tenant-farmed the same land, for the same landlord, for 29 years. For three decades Lucas has worked the tight, black clay soil, making a huge investment in equipment and time growing rice, bound to his landlord at a fair rental rate by only a verbal agreement.

Things are changing this year, however, for this 52-year-old cattle and rice producer. The landlord recently died, survived by four heirs. The new landlords have learned to work the farm bill to their benefit, and have chosen a route taken by many across the Texas Gulf Coast that endangers the livelihoods of farmers growing a crop with a rich, 100-year history in the Lone Star State.

A majority of the new landlords originally wanted to take all the government payments for the rice base and take the land out of production. One, however, in an effort to keep Lucas farming, offered a proposal where the landlords would get a majority of the government payment for the land through Lucas by raising the land rent.

"They're under the impression, and I am too, that what they are doing is all legal," Lucas says, noting that many landowners, facing payment limitations of their own, resort to raising rents sky high to tap further into government programs through the tenant's eligibility. "My biggest problem is, I have a moral issue with this...me, taking all of the government checks and giving it back to them..."

cont'd

http://www.txfb.org/texasAgriculture/2003/020703/020703rice.htm