Assessing the economic impact of COVID-19 pandemic on rice production in Kebbi State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assesses the economic impact of COVID-19 on rice production in Kebbi State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the rice farmers used for the study. Stage one involves purposive selection of (5) Local Government Areas that are predominant in rice production in the State. Stage two involved random selection of 50 farmers from the list of registered rice farmers in each of the selected Local Government Areas given a total of 250 rice farmers used for the study. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics involving frequency, percentage and mean scores. Results of the study revealed that most of the rice farmers (94%) were aware of the COVID-19 pandemic and their common sources of information were radio (100%) and friends and relatives (89%). Similarly, the results showed that the amount of farm inputs utilized by the rice farmers has reduced during and after the pandemic. For instance, the quality of seed utilized before the disease outbreak was 80kg/ha which declined to 45kg/ha during the pandemic and made a small recovery to 65kg/ha after the pandemic. The level of fertilizer used dropped from 250kg/ha before the pandemic to 150kg/ha during the pandemic but recovered to 250kg/ha after the pandemic. Annual yield also declines from 4000kg/ha before the disease to 2000kg/ha during the pandemic. Off-farm income was also affected by Covid-19. For instance, money realized from trading reduced to half (₦223,843/annum) compared to what is as obtained before the pandemic (₦410,567/annual). However, income realized from civil service was not affected much. Some of the coping strategies adopted to survive were reliance on savings and the sale of assets. The study, therefore, recommended channels of farm inputs, processing and marketing be adequately established and protected to ensure that they are not affected by the imposition of regulations to address emergencies such as COVID-19. The State Government needs to provide more assistance to rice farmers in the State to enable them to fully recover from the adverse effects of COVID-19 which still persist.