What’s ahead for the U.S. and global rice markets? With harvest beginning or only weeks away depending on their location in the Rice Belt, farmers’ thoughts are turning to the end game for the 2015 rice crop.

To help with the decision-making process, the University of Arkansas will conduct the next in its series of informational webinars at 2 p.m. on July 22. The title of this webinar will be Rice Outlook: Updated U.S. Area Estimates and the 2015-16 U.S. and Global Rice Market Outlook.

The presenter will be Dr. Nathan Childs, senior agricultural economist with the USDA Economics Research Service. Dr. Childs, who helps prepare the World Agricultural Outlook Board’s World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates or WASDE report, has been following the global rice markets for more than 25 years.

“We think farmers and other rice industry members will want to hear Dr. Childs’ assessment of the prospects for the 2015-16 rice markets,” said Dr. Bobby Coats, professor of agricultural economics at the University of Arkansas and organizer of the UAEX webinar series.

Dr. Coats, moderator of the webinar, will be joined by Tony Franco and Anita Wilson of USDA’s Farm Service Agency staff in Little Rock, Ark., and Forrest Laws, content director for Farm Press Publications.

To register for the webinar, go to https://uaex.zoom.us/webinar/register/193160330ca41c048c34be5db4a05ad8 and follow the instructions in the registration area.

Dr. Childs has been analyzing the domestic and international rice markets for USDA's Economic Research Service since 1996.

Prior to that appointment, he was associate editor and economic editor for ERS’ monthly Agricultural Outlook magazine for more than 5 years. He has also worked as a food grain economist with ERS.

He has published reports on global trade liberalization, U.S. farm policy, domestic rice consumption, the U.S. rice export market, Southeast Asia’s rice surplus, the structure of the U.S. rice market, and the 2008 global rice price surge. 

Dr. Childs participates in all rice-related monthly interagency meetings and writes the monthly Rice Outlook Report. He also updates the Rice Yearbook Tables and develops domestic and international rice forecasts for USDA’s 10-year Baseline project. 

Over the years, he has been involved three Emerging Market Projects—Taiwan (1992, 1993), China (1997), and Vietnam (2007); and he’s traveled to Haiti several times to assist the Haitian Government in increasing rice capacity.

The next webinar in the series will be held at 11 a.m. on July 28. Topic of the webinar will be “Global Impacts of El Nino on Agriculture.” Mark Brusberg, deputy chief meteorologist and Brian Morris, meteorologist, in USDA’s Office of Chief Economist, World Agricultural Outlook Board, will speak.