<P> The rice industry in Louisiana began around the time of the Civil War . For a number of years, production was small, but during the 1870s the industry began to assume large proportions, averaging nearly 30 million pounds for the decade and exceeding 51 million pounds in 1880 . In 1885, the production reached 100 million pounds, and in 1892, 182 million pounds . The great development of the rice industry in Louisiana after 1884 resulted from the opening up of a prairie region in the southwestern part of the state, and the development of a system of irrigation and culture which made possible the use of harvesting machinery similar to that used in the wheat fields of the Northwest, greatly reducing the costs of production . In 1896, yield from the Louisiana rice fields, where harvesting machinery was used, was good . However the milling process was not successful commercially in some rice varieties . The loss due to the milling process was considerable, particularly of the unbroken rice in the "head rice" variety . </P> <P> Rice was established in Arkansas in 1904, California in 1912, and the Mississippi Delta in 1942 . Rice cultivation in California in particular started during the California Gold Rush . It was introduced primarily for the consumption of about 40,000 Chinese laborers who were brought as immigrants to the state; only a small area was under rice cultivation to meet this requirement . However, commercial production began only in 1912 in the town of Richvale in Butte County . Since then, California has cultivated rice in a big way, and as of 2006, its production of rice was the second largest in the United States . </P> <P> Rice culture in the southeastern U.S. became less profitable with the loss of slave labor after the American Civil War, and it finally died out just after the turn of the 20th century . Today, people can visit the historic Mansfield Plantation in Georgetown, South Carolina, the state's only remaining rice plantation with the original mid-19th century winnowing barn and rice mill . The predominant strain of rice in the Carolinas was from Africa and was known as "Carolina Gold". The cultivar has been preserved and there are current attempts to reintroduce it as a commercially grown crop . </P> <P> In 1900, the annual production of rice in the US was approximately half the annual consumption . The two principal varieties of lowland rice which were cultivated in the Atlantic States were the "gold seed rice" and white rice, which were the original rice varieties introduced into the US . Gold seed rice was notable for the larger yield of the grain . It thus practically superseded white rice which was cultivated in the earlier years . Experiments with upland rice demonstrated that it could grow over large areas of the country but the crop's yield and quality are inferior to lowland rice produced by irrigation methods . </P>

Who produces the most rice in the world