RISK ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES IN RICE PRODUCTION IN NIGER STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Rice is an important cereal crop in Nigeria. However, its availability is affected by the risks involved in its production. Hence, hence farmers uses various strategies to mitigate these risks. Therefore, it is these bases, the study assesses the risks and management strategies in rice production in Niger State, Nigeria. Data were collected from 151 respondents and analyzed using descriptive statistics and multinomial logit regression. The results revealed that, majority (90.70%) of the respondents were males and highly educated (82.1%). The mean age of the respondents was 35 years and a mean of 12 years of experience in rice production. The major risks sources that compromise rice production in the study area includes climate variability (WM = 4.16), pilfering/theft (WM = 3.68) and market failure (WM = 3.56). The most effective management strategies adopted by rice farmers to mitigate risks associated with rice in the study area were diversification into non- rice business (WM = 2. 72), which ranked 1st , use of agro-chemicals (WM = 2.38) which ranked 2nd while the use of crop rotation techniques of farming (WM =2 .30) and cooperatives marketing (WM = 2.3) ranked 3rd respectively. The multinomial logit regression reveals that age, educational level, farming experience, farmers’ association, goal of farming, household size farm output, access to extension and number of extension contacts had significant effect on the management strategies adopted by the rice farmers in the study area. Thus, it was recommended that the farmers should adopt the modern risk management strategies such as insurance and integrated farming system.