They farm rice big time in Central Arkansas. But not in paddies per say.
Mosquito hell.
As you go south it gets very boggy.
South East Texas is rice country as well, you can still see the dikes and sluces all over fields in the Katy Sealy area. After a good rain the fields revert back to their rice paddie roots unless those drain gates are left open year round
Plus every year in Wharton county they drain down Lake Travis outside of Austin to plant rice on a huge scale. Every year people on the lake get all butthurt and every year they have to be reminded that the rice farmers not only have senior water rights they helped pay for the dam to get built in the first place.