March 22, 2007

Corn area to more than double in US state Arkansas

Farmers in US state Arkansas this year will more than double the acreage they devote to corn, according to the Cooperative Extension Service of the University of Arkansas as reported by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

A boom in ethanol production and plans to increase that production, are fuelling the higher interest in corn as a crop in Arkansas, a farm marketing consultant said.

The extension service estimates that corn acreage in Arkansas this year will total 500,000 acres, compared with 190,000 acres last year. Not since 1957, when Arkansas farmers planted 533,000 acres in corn, has there been as much land devoted to the crop in the state, the newspaper reported.

Trent Roberts, an agricultural marketing consultant with Scott and Associates of Little Rock, said interest in raising corn has grown as corn prices have risen, driven by rising interest in ethanol.

But even if corn acreage grows as much as the extension service forecasts, land devoted to the crop will have a long way to go to catch up with the acreage devoted to Arkansas' three major row crop--rice, soybeans and cotton, according to the newspaper.

Rice, the top crop in the state last year in terms of value, was grown on about 1.4 million acres in Arkansas during 2006. Soybeans, while yielding less in crop value, were grown on about 3.2 million acres, while cotton was planted on about 1.1 million acres.