Economics Of Rainfed And Irrigated Rice Production Under Upper Benue River Basin Development Authority Scheme, Dadinkowa, Gombe State, Nigeria

S. Mohammed
2011 Zenodo  
The study compared the costs and returns of rice production under rainfed and irrigation methods in the Upper Benue River Basin in Dadinkowa, Gombe State, Nigeria. Questionnaires were used to collect data from 40 randomly selected rice farmers who engaged in both rainfed and irrigated production in the area. Descriptive statistics and gross margin analysis were employed in data analysis. Results showed that mean age, farming experience and farm size of the respondents were 59.84 years, 26.63
more » ... rs and 0.35 ha respectively. In both cases, labor constituted the major component of total costs of production while sales of unthreshed rice was the major income component in rainfed (40.00%) and irrigated (45.00%) production methods. Moreover, the per hectare gross margin and net return per naira invested in rainfed production were N 61,606.12 and 0.51 respectively; while in the irrigation method the respective values were N100,889.00 and 0.78. Furthermore, results revealed that water supply (83.33%), extension activities (78.90%) and canal maintenance (70.27%) were the most satisfied services while fertilizer supply was the least as indicated by the respondents. The study testifies that both the production methods were profitable, though the irrigation was more profitable and recommends both methods but prefers irrigated in alternative situations.
doi:10.5281/zenodo.810082 fatcat:f4apyujcqncpjcjq4dcyhmrdye