Rice Production and Poverty Reduction in Agatu Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to analyzed rice production and poverty reduction in Agatu local government area of Benue state, Nigeria. To this end, a multi-stage sampling technique was used. The first stage involved the purposive selection of five wards noted for high production of rice. Secondly, a simple random sampling was used to select twenty five respondents each from the five wards to sum up to one hundred and twenty five respondents used for the study. The analytical tools employed included simple descriptive statistics like mean, frequency distribution, percentages and tables and inferential statistics like logit regression model. The data used were from primary source and this was collected by administering of structured questionnaires to illicit information from the farmers. The results of the analysis revealed farmers to be in their active age, mostly married, males’ dominance, highly experienced and educated with large families. Annual income from rice production was significant in reducing poverty in the study area pseudo R2 value of 0.886. The overall Chi-Square value was significant at 1% level of probability, also log likelihood value of 135.27. The study recommends the need for credit to be extended to poor farmers to help stimulate their investment in order to increase their income.  Farmers are also encouraged to engage in non-farm activities to raise their level of income.