VIDALIA — Area rice farmers will have three new varieties of the crop, created by the LSU AgCenter, to consider for planting in 2011.

Each new variety is of a different type of rice, and will allow rice farmers more choice and better quality for their next harvest.

The new varieties include a long-grain Clearfield variety, a new medium-grain variety and an aromatic Jasmine-type variety.

Angelina Plantation rice grower Dennis Denais said rice growers are glad to have new varieties from which to choose.

“We are always looking for something to increase our yields,” he said. “We plant different rice types in our fields, so we can sell to different markets and have more benefits.”

LSU AgCenter rice breeder Xueyan Sha said the new long-grain variety called CL 152 is an improvement to its predecessor, CL 151.

“Its grain quality is superior to the 151,” he said. “It also has more resistance to lodging, or falling over, and diseases.”

Sha said the CL 152 is also less chalky than the CL 151.

“(CL 152) is an upgraded version of CL 151,” he said. “We worked to make it a better overall plant.”

The new medium-grain variety called Caffey is completely new, and is a step up from the current top medium-grain variety, Jupiter, Sha said.

“The new variety has some advantages,” he said. “The grain is much broader and bigger,” he said. “It also has a little bit of a yield advantage when it comes time to harvest.”

Denais said Concordia Parish rice farmers plant long-grain varieties more than medium-grain.

“Medium grain markets are not wide open. There is not a good market for them,” he said. “We have a niche market with Kellogg’s, and that is where most of the medium-grain grown in the parish is going.”

Sha said the new Jasmine-type variety is an aromatic rice with a popcorn smell called Jazzman II, a newer variety of the original crop he created, Jazzman.

“It cooks like a medium-grain rice, even though it is a long-grain variety,” he said. “It is shorter and has a stronger aroma than the first Jazzman variety.”

Sha said the AgCenter has been working on the Jasmine-type variety to try and give the U.S. to have it without importing it.

“We are trying to compete with the imports from Thailand,” he said. “In the past, half of the rice has been imported here, and we want to change that.”

Denais said he has been looking at Jazzman II for planting in the future, along with hybrid-rice varieties.

“Hybrids are really starting to catch on,” he said. “They bring a better yield and disease resistance, but they are very costly.”

Sha said the rice breeders at the AgCenter are going to continue to work on providing newer rice varieties for farmers.

“We are going to continue to work on pure-line breeding,” he said. “But we are also staring to work a lot more on developing newer hybrid varieties.”