Assessments of Profitability of Low Land Rice Production in Katcha Local Government Area of Niger State

Abstract

The research was carried out to assess the profitability of lowland rice production in Katcha Local Government Area of Niger State, Nigeria. Two districts where rice production is mostly predominant were purposively selected out of which ten villages were randomly selected and 200 rice producers were randomly selected based on the proportion of rice farmers in each selected village. Descriptive statistics andfarm budgetary model [FMB] were used to analyse the data. The result of descriptive statistics indicated that 86% of lowland rice farmers were between the ages of 20-50 years. Majority of the farmers were literate with long experience of rice production .Farm Budgetary Model [FBM] shows that the average total revenue is greater than total cost of lowland rice production which indicates profit from lowland rice farmers . The average total revenue was N44400 while average total cost was N21765.7. The major problem encountered by the farmers include flooding immediately after transplanting the seedlings from river Gbako which is the main source of water to the rice farms.