Economic Analysis of Rainfed Rice Production in Gassol Local Government Area of Taraba State, Nigeria.

¹ALAM M.K., ²IDOKO M.D., ¹MUSA A.H., ¹BASHIR M.B. AND ¹ADI S.S.

¹Department of Agricultural Extension and Management, Taraba State College of Agriculture, Jalingo, Taraba State, Nigeria

²National Biotechnology Development Agency (BIODEC) Jalingo – North East Zone, Taraba State, Nigeria.

E-mail: meetalammk@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The study analyzed the economics of rainfed rice production in Gassol Local Government Area of Taraba State, Nigeria. The specific objectives were to describe the socio-economic characteristics of rainfed rice farmers, estimate the cost and returns of rice production and identify the constraints to rice production in the study area. Primary data were collected from 88 rice farmers using purposive and random sampling techniques and were analyzed using descriptive statistics and gross margin analysis. The results revealed that 76.14% of the respondents were below 41 years of age, majority (80.68%) were males, 70.45% were married and most (85.23%) were formally educated. Also 72.73% of the farmers had farming experience for more than five years and majority (79.54%) had farm size of less than five hectares of farmland. The findings on the Gross Margin analysis indicated that rainfed rice farmers incurred a total cost of N49,00% per hectare of rice production and had an average yield per hectare of 1300kg which were sold at an average market price of N60/kg. The result further shows that the Gross income, gross margin, net farm income and return on Naira invested were: N78,000, N36,000, N28,992 and N0.59k respectively. The constraints to rainfed rice production were identified as: inadequate fund, high cost of labour, high cost of farm inputs, price fluctuation, poor marketing outlet, pests and diseases, poor storage facilities and insecurity. Rainfed rice farmers are encouraged to form or join cooperative society to enable them get financial supports from Government and financial institutions. Government should also subsidize the prices of farm inputs to make them accessible and affordable to farmers. Also improve varieties of seeds should be supplied to rice farmers which yields more and is less vulnerable to diseases, insects and rodents attack.