| Several agricultural policies have been targeted at improving rice production in Nigeria in the past few decades; yet, Nigeria has been listed among the leading importers of rice in the world. The ability of the policies to improve the performance and competitiveness of the rice sector to survive in the face of strong international competition is very crucial. The study evaluated the Federal Government agricultural policies on the competitiveness and comparative advantage of rice production and marketing in Kaduna state, Nigeria. A multistage random technique was employed to draw a sample of 241 rice farmers, 74 parboilers, 33 millers, 44 paddy marketers and 34 milled rice marketers in the study area. Primary and secondary data were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics, binary logit regression and the Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM). Major findings of the study were that small-scale rice production and processing in the study area is competitive and had comparative advantage. Private profit of N93, 498.93, and social profit of N19, 793.79 per hectare were calculated under prevailing technologies, costs of inputs, output prices, and existing policy environment; the cumulative effects of policy on rice production and processing in the study area led to increase in revenue and income for small-scale farmers and processors. A positive divergence in both revenue (68,884.92) and profits (73,705.14) as well as a Nominal Protection Coefficient on Output (NPCO) value of 1.5293 indicated that existing policies increased the domestic market prices to a level of about 53% above their corresponding international reference prices. The calculated Nominal Protection Coefficient on Tradable Input (NPCI) ratio of 0.9407 suggested that farmers and processors were enjoying subsidy for the use of tradable inputs. The major constraints militating against the performance of the principal actors in rice production, processing and marketing were non-availability of credit facilities, lack of modern rice processing equipment, poor patronage and prices, poor access roads, and lack of storage facilities. The study recommended the: strengthening of existing rice price support mechanisms for both producers and processors, especially the guaranteed minimum pricing strategy by the government; enhancing the availability of subsidized credit facilities in line with the Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) model; developing formal institutional arrangements that will guide and enforce the maintenance of quality standards such as weights, grades and measures across the rice value chain; and encouraging the relevant Research Institutes, Universities and Polytechnics to develop rice production and processing technologies that would increase the paddy-grain-conversion ratio from the present level of 0.62 calculated for the study area. |
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