HIGH yields and prices have Riverina rice growers smiling, despite rain interrupting the start to this year's harvest.
Early harvested crops in the Murray, Murrumbidgee and Coleambally irrigation areas have yielded up to 12t/ha.
Murray valley grower Ian Mason began harvesting 34ha of reiziq and jarrah last week - up from 16ha last year.
Mr Mason, of Jerilderie, said the season was "encouraging". "In this district last year there were me and six bore pumpers growing rice," Mr Mason said. "This year there are up to 30 growers in the Jerilderie-Finley district growing 12-20ha each."
But Mr Mason said harvest enthusiasm needed to be tempered: "The situation is still pretty tough - the biggest problem is cashflow after a series of failed winter crops and the difficult part will be putting in the next rice crop."
Ricegrowers Association of Australia president Les Gordon said this season's harvest was likely to top 170,000 tonnes, following disastrous harvests of 66,000 tonnes last season and 19,000 tonnes in 2007-08.
Mr Gordon said late-season general security allocations, plus irrigation corporation enhancements meant most irrigators now had 30 per cent of their allocations.
"The vast bulk of that water is being carried over, much of it to grow rice, which at $400 a tonne is the only cereal worth growing at the moment."
Coleambally grower Ken Brain is due to start harvesting 64ha of the medium-rain variety, quest, this week.
It is his first rice crop in four years and was planted in November as a "punt".
"I thought with the way the water prices were dropping and the high Australian dollar I would have a go," he said. "So I bit the bullet and it has paid off."
Mr Brain's neighbours, Ian Payne and Sharon Breed, have increased their area under rice from 55ha last year to 190ha.
