Description
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
The agricultural sector played a significant role in Nigerian’s economic development
before the oil boom of the early 1970s by providing food, employment, foreign exchange
earnings and alleviating poverty. However, in recent years, there has been a marked decline
in the performance sector. (Ala, 2013). The contribution of agriculture to Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) which stood at an average of 56 percent in 1960-1964, declined to 47 percent
in 1965-1969, further declined to 35 percent in 2002-2004 and increase to about 40 percent in
2009). But recently contracted to 13.70 percent in the first quarter of 2016 over the previous
quarter. (Amaza and Maurice, 2005; FAO, 2010).
Rice is a staple food consumed by over 2.6 billion people in the world (TCA,
2014).The global output shows that the Asian continent account for about 92 percent, while
America and the Caribbean account for 5 percent and 3 percent for Africa (TCA, 2015). Rice
as a cereal grain is the most important staple food for large part of the world human
population. It is also the second highest worldwide production after maize (FAO, 2010).Since
a large portion of maize crops are grown for purposes other than human consumption, rice is
the most important grain with regard to human nutrition and calorie intake. Rice provides
more than one fifth of the calorie consumed worldwide by human beings (Smith, 2011).