AgroPages-RiceTec collaborates with Arkansas State University and USDA-ARS on important rice research project-Agricultural news

More than two months of preparation for a rice study has been completed.

The Arkansas State University Arkansas Biosciences Institute has finished the final touches on six rice tents in Harrisburg.

Construction began on May and workers said it’s been a long process.

Crews battled through both extreme heat and consistent rain for 11 weeks.

The purpose of the study is to monitor heat temperatures within each rice plant for the next three years.

Once the study is finished, farmers can look at different breeds of rice and see how each plant performed in a heat-stressed environment.

Shea Harris is one of the workers for the project and said this could impact farmers throughout Region 8.

“All of those are popular within the region," Harris said. "And a lot are the top rice varieties grown here in Arkansas.”

The six tents have exactly 320 different varieties of rice.

Some of the hired hands involved in the study are college and high school students.

This study is a collaboration between Rice-Tec, Arkansas State University, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Kansas State University.

RiceTec collaborates with Arkansas State University and USDA-ARS on important rice research project