Seventy tonnes of the upland, or rain-fed, Japanese variety Tachiminori is being distributed to 40 growers between Kempsey and the Queensland border, who will plant areas ranging from eight to 300ha in mid-October.

Most taking the seed are looking at rice as an addition to cane-soybean-corn rotations for low-lying paddocks that suffered big losses in last summer’s floods.

Others who have access to irrigation have bought dryland variety seed from the Riverina, believing the bullish global prices for the staple food have the potential to make the crop profitable in their region, particularly if production levels warrant setting up a processing infrastructure.

The region’s first commercial rice crop achieved yields of 3.5 tonnes a hectare.

These North Coast growers can keep variable costs to under $1200/ha with no irrigation expenses.

They say profit margins could be as high as $755/ha based on a price of $550/t for human consumption.

Many growers, however, believe yields as high as 5t/ha will be possible within a short period, using improved varieties and with more experience on farm.

Greg and Gary Woolley’s commercial crop, grown near Lismore last season, was sent to the stockfeed market, making $170/ha.

The Woolleys, who have trialled rice in the Northern Rivers for seven years, provided the upland rice seed for the region’s plant this season and plan on putting in another 200ha themselves for the human consumption market.

“Our seed was accounted for very quickly.

"Every night somebody is ringing me up about rice,” Gary Woolley said.

He said growers have suffered big cane and soybean losses from frost and flood in the past year and are keen to try an alternative crop that could handle being submerged for four weeks, as had happened earlier this year.

Upland rice, harvested in April and May, fits well with cane.

Based on $550/t for rice, growers say their cane is worth about four times as much per hectare as is rice, and soybeans are worth even more, given the record prices of last season, but rice provides a more secure crop for paddocks prone to flood.

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