Economics of Rice Production and Marketing in Nigeria: A Study of Ebonyi State

Abstract

This study examines the economics of rice production and marketing in Nigeria. The costs and returns, marketing margin, and constraints associated with rice production and marketing were examined. Seven states and nine markets were selected for investigations. Stratified random sampling techniques were used to collect data from forty-five respondents. The simple descriptive statistics and farm firm budget techniques were the major tools used in analyzing the data. Result of the analysis showed that the rice Farmers made a 68% gross income while the net income was at 43% which is indicative that the middlemen did not make excessive profit at the expense of the primary producers. Constraints associated with rice production include high cost of labour and inputs in terms of machinery while that of marketing included high cost of transportation and inadequate storage facilities. The study suggests an improvement of Farm inputs and equipment, the road network system and provision of agricultural credit to enable rice farmers and traders expand the volume of their operations. The choice of these towns was based on the fact that they have the highest concentration of the rice farmers, Rice Mills and consumers in the State. The swampy and soft nature of the most part of those areas makes cultivation easy. In the researcher’s research project, simple random sampling techniques was used to select the sample for this study. This was mainly to ensure that the sample was truly the representation of the total population. Each of the thirteen towns and markets were given an equal opportunity of appearing in the experiment. It sets also to study benchmark of activity or performance of a given equity market – the relationship between domestic or circular market and its contribution to making Nigeria a
vibrant economy.