The CLL19 rice, an early-maturing variety, is currently in commercial seed production and could be available to growers soon. Photo by Olivia McClure

The LSU AgCenter H. Rouse Caffey Rice Research Station near Crowley has continued to develop a number of rice varieties that have impressive potential for farmers. The star of the show, though, is Clearfield variety CLL19 — a long-grain rice line in testing since 2018 that has continued to check off a lot of important boxes.

“It's shown extremely high and very stable yields in trials we’ve done throughout Louisiana and in Arkansas, too,” said Adam Famoso, an LSU AgCenter rice breeder. “It’s higher yielding and more stable than what we’ve seen in our previous Clearfield varieties.”

This long-grain variety also has shown promising ratoon crop capacity, improved milling quality and is early maturing, similar to CL111, which decreases the time in the field and potential damage from weather events. It adds very good resistance against blast disease to its other impressive attributes, making it an ideal fit for Louisiana.

CLL19 yielded 60 barrels per acre in multiple seed production fields across Louisiana, Texas and Missouri, which, according to Famoso, is an extremely high number on hundreds of acres.

“That’s pretty exceptional, and I think it really highlights the yield potential,” said Famoso “There’s a lot of excitement, and we think it’s going to be a pretty impactful variety.”

Even though CLL19 is semi-dwarf, it performed at similar yield levels to standard-height varieties in Arkansas, meaning it might have potential there as well. CLL19 seed will be commercially available in 2024.

Another Clearfield line that may be released soon is CLHA03. It’s a high amylose line, similar to the variety AddiJo, which makes it nonsticky when cooked.

“CLHA03 has good nonstick characteristics for things like parboiling and for some export markets,” said Famoso. “Some of the export markets interested in it are Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Honduras.”

Avant is a promising conventional long-grain variety that was introduced into commercial production in 2023.

The crop has a shorter maturity than all existing varieties, had really good yields averaging near 50 barrels per acre and showed good milling properties, according to Famoso.

LA19-2207 is a similar conventional long-grain variety that was in the foundation seed process in 2023. It yielded well and showed very good blast resistance.

“Basically for the first few years LA19-2207 and Avant were neck and neck,” said Famoso. “LA19-2207 yielded right up there with Clearfield lines in 2022, and we’ll try to release it to give the grower some more options in this conventional space.”

The station started a new conventional jasmine line, LA20-2166, that is showing good promise in yield compared to existing jasmine lines CLJ01 and Jazzman1 and could help in the competition with foreign jasmine imports. During foundation seed plantings, it had very good blast resistance and a good grain appearance and aroma, according to Famoso.

“Jasmine rice is a really important domestic market, but since these lines don’t typically yield as much as our other lines, our main driver is to increase yield,” Famoso said. “2166 showed increased yield potential this year, while the other jasmines had some trouble with the heat.”

Provisia variety PVL03, in its second year of commercial production, was the most widely grown variety in Louisiana. It was planted on more than a third of the acreage.

“The yields were very solid this year and the Provisia herbicide system resulted in great weed control and one of the cleanest red rice-free crops we’ve had in many years,” he said..

AgCenter researchers have identified two additional Provisia lines that, after three years of testing, showed a clear yield advantage over PVL03.

“PVL03 has been a very good variety, so we don’t want to replace it unless we’re real confident we have something better,” said Famoso. “But one of those two newer Provisia lines could very likely be released in 2026.”

Famoso said they were excited to see many of the new varieties perform well last year, despite difficult environmental conditions.

“We feel like we have a very solid pipeline of varieties, and every year we're identifying new and improved things,” said Famoso. “We're excited about what we’re going to be able to provide for the future.”