How to Grow Rice in the Great California Desert!

A lot of people think California is a desert and water should be used for something better than growing rice. Even if the state has excess water?

Many wildlife clips featured in this episode are courtesy of the California Rice Commission. For more amazing videography check out their channel:

Short Oroville Dam spillway video courtesy of California Department of Water Resources. For more Lake Oroville Dame updates:

Please share this episode if you found it entertaining and/or educational.

✅ Please contact me with any questions or feedback. I will make an effort to respond within 24 hours.

[ferremit]

Chances of Michael seeing this and actually learning something? Slim to none. Chances of Matt doing even more good work educating people on modern agriculture and its place in society? Excellent.

[stevet]

Part of the reason Rice Farming TV exists is to educate, and you're doing it masterfully Matt. Keep doing it.

[redisthecolor]

Matt, gracefully responding to ignorance. Bravo!

[jeffcrum]

Being a 53, tomorrow I will be anyway, 1st generation rice farmer in Arkansas I love your videos and I have learned a lot from them. We all hear these comments, uneducated comments, and you handled this professionally and properly..

[sundancer]

You Rock Matt, some people just don't understand farming, can't fix stupid comments

[paulolson]

You can't fix stupid, but sometimes you can fix ignorance. Excellent rebuttal to those ignorant comments.
Wishing you and yours continued success.

[ronconte]

I love a good agricultural rant. This one was informative and edifying.

[phillipcoetzer]

I came here to find out how mechanized farming was possible and learned more than I bargained for ... thank you for the info and feeding us.

[halilarslan]

As a child of a rice farmer family, I enjoy watching your videos. Greetings from Turkey.

[daniel]

I used to be critical when I first found your channel. So I decided to watch and learn and see how it works.

[lazygardeneasylife]

I've been farming for over 17years now, rice will survive in any climate. I am young farmer, I'd experienced a lot in terms of rice farming. Drought is more productive than rainy season. Base on my experience here in the Philippines.

[markrobinson]

Great video that truly explains the real perspective and benefits of rice farming. As a livestock rancher I hear the same ignorant arguments too, it is more efficient to eat plant based foods and so forth. The only problem with that mentality is that the land I graze for livestock is not good for farming, it has too many elevation changes and in farming that would allow too much soil erosion and it is just poor quality soil. Yet I can let it grow native fauna and graze sheep on it and completely utilize it while preserving and protecting the local environment and creeks all while providing a quality meat product that other wise would have been wasted space.

[SolidGoldShows]

HATERS will be HATERS! I am glad you made this video to educate the uneducated people about agriculture.

[Abhinav_abhiz]

You guys are real farmers... Dont mind those who say crap about your farming and they dont know any thing about rice... Except eating... Iam a beginner rice farmer and we do farming a lot different from u guys and we get same problems like this.. Sometimes there will be no water in the field for the tractor to plough or excess water also... Any way keep it up🙏🙏

[fletcher]

I'm glad you addressed these issues, Matthew. Your videos are always as educational as they are informative.

[lukasvondaheim]

Greetings from Austria! I actually watched the planting by plane video yesterday and was fascinated how this is working in a state that is known for being dry.
Now I learned how fascinating it is. Thank you for your great work! Stay safe and I wish you the best!

[ollie-lkdx]

Good job explaining to the uninformed, Their comments are exactly why we need more farmers telling our stories.Keep up the good work .

[jaspalgrewal]

Perfect explanation. Hard work and efficient use of resources the key to rice farming( any farming). Support from a organic rice farmer from India.

[KhaiFirst]

wow i live in SOUTH EAST ASIA.. so i eat rice almost everyday, Never grow i just buy at shop... :)) by way awesome Video and THANK YOU you make Growing rice AWESOME COOL!

[jimruzicka]

Like most things nobody ever thinks about, Rice Farming is a complicated business. Everyone just goes to the store and buys the rice that 'magically' appears on the shelf. It appears that the ' magic' is what Matt (and others) provide. Keep up the videos, and the 'magic'.