Nigeria is blessed with natural and human resources required to produce rice to meet its local consumption. These resources are spread across all the agro-ecological zones of the country. Despite the availability of these resources, rice production in Nigeria could still not meet the local consumption and over 40% of the crop is imported annually to complement the local production. Several studies have revealed biotic and abiotic stresses as the major impediment to the production of the crop. Weeds are the most prominent of all the stresses across all the ecologies in term of yield reduction, labour demand and control cost. Yield losses of 35-75% and 70-100% have been recorded in low land and upland ecologies respectively as a result of weed interference. The problem of weed is worse than any of the other stress mentioned above except for water stress in low land ecology. This paper reviews the various weed management options that could be adopted for optimal rice yield, by the resource poor farmers of Nigeria.

The trials were conducted in 2010 and 2011 rainy seasons at Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto Teaching and Research Dry Land Farm, Dundaye, Nigeria to determine the effects of variety and nitrogen levels on performance of  (SOSAT c-88 and Zango millet varieties). Data collected were on Stand count, tiller count, plant height and panicle length. Others included panicle weight and grain yield. All data collected were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results SOSAT c-88 and Zango millet indicated that millet varieties have no significant effect on both stand and tiller production throughout the sampling periods though nitrogen levels has significant on tiller production at 6 weeks after planting of both 2010 and 2011 cropping seasons. Panicle length was affected by millet varieties and nitrogen levels in both cropping seasons. Improve millet variety Sosat c-88 gave higher grain yield while 80 kg ha-1 and 120 kg ha-1produced significant higher millet grain yield hence should be practiced. Doi: 10.28991/HEF-2020-01-04-04 Full Text: PDF

The study assessed the adoption of improved rice processing technologies focused on small-scale rice processors groups under IFAD- Value chain development program in Niger State. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used for selection of 160 rice processors. Data were generated using structured questionnaire. The study used descriptive and inferential statistics analysis of the data. The results described that 52% of the respondent were between the age of 31 and 40 years; 65.63% of the respondent had experience in rice processing of between 5 and 15 years. The adoption index of rice processing technologies indicated that the paddy cleaning and drying technique recorded 68.75% and 50.0% high adoption level respectively. Parboiling practices and de-stoning had recorded 58.75% and 71.88% medium adoption level respectively, while rice milling operation had recorded 61.25% low adoption. Tobit regression results indicated that gender was positively significant (P≤0.1); cost of the technology was negatively significant (P≤0.01); while the training (P≤0.01) and social capital (P≤0.05) were positively significant factors influencing the adoption of the rice processing technologies.  The study recommends that capacity building (training) should be consistently conducted for updating the skills and knowledge of the rice processors. The rice processing technologies should be at low-cost within the financial reach of the processors, plus extension contact should be regular and timely by offering necessary advisory services and technical assistance so as to ensure continuous adoption of the technologies extended under the IFAD-VCDP intervention.

Climate change affects agricultural water requirement, water availability, water quantity and quality. Agriculture is most affected by climate change among other sectors because crop and livestock systems depend critically on climatic variables such as precipitation and temperature. The effect of climate change has been assessed in several special reports from international agencies the United Nations World Water Development (WWD), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) etc. These studies all share a common conclusion that climate change affects the availability, quality and quantity of water for basic human needs, thus threatening global food security. Following these global assessments and numerous local and regional studies, this study provides an overview of the state-of-the-art knowledge on the impact of climate change on agriculture and water resources, backed up by climatic data from Nigerian Meteorological Agency, Abuja. The results show that the atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases (GHGs) is increasing. Consequently, the increasing concentration of GHGs resulted in changing global climate with increasing temperature. The rise in global average temperatures since 1860 now exceeds 0.6OC. In Nigeria, there is a decrease in rainfall (about 90 mm), while temperature increased (about 0.8OC) since 1960. This has led to increased evaporation and evapotranspiration and water stress resulting in the drying up of water bodies such as rivers and lakes. While climate change makes some countries experience an increase in water resources, the majority face serious water stress. The changes in climatic events such as temperature and rainfall significantly affect the yield of crops, because of their sensitivity to weather parameters, thereby causing huge economic impacts on countries that are highly dependent on Agriculture. More research and government policies should focus on a planned adaptation in agricultural water management to facilitate more consistent and more effective responses to climate change, with consideration of the linkage with non-agricultural water uses.