Crop switching is increasingly recognized as a key adaptation strategy to mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change on agriculture. However, it remains unclear which crop choices under specific climate stressors can deliver the greatest benefits. Using floodplain rice farming as a case study, this research presents an integrated, spatially explicit framework to evaluate the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of transitioning from traditional flood-sensitive crops to rice cultivation in flood-prone croplands across the United States. We identify ~84,000 km² of cropland flooded between 2001 and 2021, accounting for 39% of the total flooded extent. Flooding leads to significant yield losses of 11–29% for major crops such as soybeans, corn, and wheat, with over 75% of these flooded croplands highly or moderately suitable for rice cultivation. Introducing rice in these areas under alternate wetting and drying (AWD) irrigation could generate net economic returns of $6.67 billion and reduce environmental costs by $2.30 billion compared to conventional continuous flooding (CF). The greatest benefits are observed in severely flood-affected regions of Minnesota, North Dakota, Arkansas, Missouri, and Iowa. These findings highlight the potential of targeted rice adoption as a climate-resilient strategy to enhance agricultural sustainability and optimize economic-environmental outcomes under increasing climate risks.