Southern New South Wales rice paddocks may be looking lean this summer, but consumers are being assured there will be no repeat of the COVID pandemic shortages on supermarket shelves.

Low water allocations across the Murray and Murrumbidgee valleys have forced growers to slash plantings.

"In our area [the Murrumbidgee], agronomists are saying they've only got a handful of growers, where last year they might've had a couple of dozen," Ricegrowers' Association of Australia president Peter Herrmann said.

Mr Herrmann, who farms at Muurami near Griffith, said planting began in October and early estimates suggested this year's rice crop could shrink to a third of last season's 44,000 hectares, which produced a 620,000-tonne harvest.

"The area sown to rice varied significantly between valleys

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