ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECT OF RICE SMUGGLING ON WELL-BEING OF SMALLHOLDER FARMERS IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

This study was carried out to assess the effect of rice smuggling on the well-being of smallholder rice farmers in Ogun State, Nigeria. The population of the study comprised of all smallholder rice farmers. Respondents were made up of 125 farmers who were randomly sampled from nine Local Government Areas (LGAs) purposively selected based on their location along Nigeria-Benin border where smuggling activities take place. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain data for the study. Data collected was subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics analysis. Findings from the study revealed that most of the respondents (75.2%) were male, 26.4% were between 41 and 50 years and only 14% are above 50 years of age. The respondents (31.2%) had at least secondary education and majority of them (65.7%) reported that rice smuggling into the country adversely affect the level of patronage of homegrown rice. Yet, the study revealed that of all the responses on effect of rice smuggling, only bribery and corruption was statistically significant to have effect on well-being of smallholder rice farmers. It was recommended that Government should provide more incentives to rice farmers by subsidizing rice production inputs and processing machines in order to encourage more production and rice milling for value addition to discourage further smuggling of rice into Nigeria.