TITLE:
Perceptions of Rice Farmers towards Production Constraints: Case Study of Niger State of Nigeria and Hainan of China
AUTHORS:
Ahmed Abdul-Gafar, Shiwei Xu, Wen Yu
KEYWORDS:
Rice Farmers, Production Constraints, Biplot Analysis, Niger State, Hainan Province
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Agricultural Chemistry and Environment,
Vol.5 No.1B,
April
30,
2016
ABSTRACT: Rice yield is still low in
Nigeria despite the ecological advantages. Several challenges has been traced
it production. The study intend to investigate if other rice producing nations
are faced with similar challenges and at what magnitude and more importantly,
what can be learn to improve the rice yield in Nigeria. Based on 2013/2014
survey, a total sample of 400 famers were randomly interviewed; 164 from Niger
State of Nigeria and 236 from Hainan province of China. The study collate the
perception of farmers to rice production constraints categorized into biotic,
abiotic and socioeconomics. Biplot analysis was employed to examine
multivariate pattern of their perceptions towards production constraints. The
multivariate technique simultaneously displaying different yield levels and
factor constraints in data matrix providing the inter-unit distances, variance
and correlations of variables. According to the study, Niger state farmers
identified socioeconomic constraint as the major factors to production and
attributed it to lack of or insufficient investment while the Hainan farmers
majorly identified abiotic constraints. The study also indicated that great
potential remain to further improve rice yield in both regions especially in
Nigeria given the appropriate investment on essential inputs. This study is of
great use to extension officers more so, given the investment in Africa, policy
makers take advantage of the bilateral and multilateral relationship to invest
ease transfer of agricultural information and technologies between or among
partners.