In Arkansas, the rice capital of America, farmers are quick to say they support the president’s stand on Iraq. “We’re not being unpatriotic,” says Robert Seidenstricker, a fourth-generation farmer with 1,400 acres. “But we are bearing more than our fair share of the burden.” For example, last year wheat sales to Iraq generated more money than rice–about $161 million versus $133 million–but the market accounted for only 2 percent of U.S. wheat exports. Now the standoff in the gulf has not only closed down a key market but contributed to higher costs for farmers. Since the spring, diesel fuel has jumped from 52 cents to $1.07 a gallon; urea, a vital, nitrogen-based fertilizer, has gone from $140 to $190 a ton. Meanwhile, the price of rice on the world market dropped from about $10 per hundredweight last year to $5.14 last week. And the newly passed federal budget will cut farm subsidies by 15 percent. “We’re being hit by a triple whammy,” says Almyra, Ark., farmer David Hillman.

Grim reaping: The current crisis has reawakened memories of grim reaping a decade ago, when a global recession caused a U.S. farm-export slums. Then, as now, farmers felt aftershocks from the Near East: Iran, once America’s ice s chief rice importer, became off-limits with the rise of the ayatollah. Those days, i t was not unusual for The Stuttgart Daily Leader to carry pages of ads for land and used farm equipment. Bruce Martin, manager of the John Deere store, saw his customer base dwindle from 900 to 300.

Now the region is facing another shakeout. The United States is a unlikely to find a replacement for the Iraq market anytime soon: Thailand and Vietnam, its chief rivals, are Producing bumper crops, making competition for remaining markets even tougher. Because of rising costs, several farmers in the region have been forced take out additional loans to bring in this year’s crops. “Next year.” says one banker. “some banks may not be willing to loan any money to farmers saddled with a high debt ratio.” Paul Wittman of Stuttgart owes about $175,000 on his 1,000 acres. “There was a time when a farmer’s rice crop could pay off his debt,” says Wittmam who had planned on replacing some farm equipment at harvest time. Instead. he say, “I’m just going to fix up my old stuff for another year.”

With rice futures in jeopardy, farmers have beau n to sow new strategies–and new crops. Fred Seidenstricker. Robert’s 73-year-old father and the veteran of 53 rice harvests, sat inside the cab of a combine recently as it busily harvested soybeans and talked about diversifying further. “Rice w ill come back on the market,” he says. “But we’re going to plant as much corn as we can.”