 The five largest rice-producing counties in the state of Arkansas were Poinsett (134,944 harvested acreage), Arkansas (117,675 harvested acreage), Cross (106,254 harvested acreage), Jackson (101,762 harvested acreage), and Lawrence (99,480 harvested acreage) in the year 2003, which represented nearly 36% of the state's total land acreage under rice production.Rice is an extremely water intensive crop, and as a result requires quite a bit of irrigation "that must be secured from other sources.