The Impacts of Enhanced Rice Quality Genetics on Food Security and Producer Profitability

Increasing milling potential could provide more food for human consumption at current yields and input uses. We estimate the impact of increasing rice milling yields in Arkansas from 2004 to 2020 using actual yields by variety. The results suggest that a marginal 1% increase in the percentage of whole kernels could increase the number of rice rations by 0.89 million to 1.05 million annually, or up to 2.94 million and 3.5 million annually if the genetics of all Arkansas rice were at least at the standard of a popular purebred variety. Improving rice milling yields can have significant food security implications.