An Assessment of the Adoption of Improved Rice Processing Technologies: A Case of Rice Farmers in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria

Aim: To ascertain the adoption of improved rice processing technologies among rice farmers in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria.

Study Design: Survey research.

Place and Duration of Study: Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria, between June and August, 2016.

Methodology: A simple random sampling technique was used to select 240 rice farmers from four of the six agricultural zones as delineated by the FCT Agricultural Development Project (FCT-ADP) for the study. Descriptive statistics, sigma scoring method and binary logistic model were used to analyse primary data obtained through questionnaire administration.

Results: Results from the findings showed that 72.5% of the farmers were male with an average age of 43 years. Rice farmers in the area had a mean farming experience of 9 years and operated on an average farm size of 4 hectares with average annual income from processing activities of N158, 244. The results further indicated a generally low level of adoption with respect to improved paddy steaming (sigma score = 5.1) and improved drying (sigma score = 4.1). The marginal effect of access to credit, awareness, and years of processing experience directly influenced the probability of adoption of improved rice processing technologies among rice farmers in the area at 5%, while household size decreased adoption at 1%.

Conclusion: There was low adoption of processing technologies among rice farmers due to high purchase costs and other constraining socioeconomic variables. The study therefore recommends the establishment of effective linkage system and collaboration of the major stakeholders towards appropriate technology development and dissemination.