Rice Farming Best Agronomic practices
Introduction Rice is the most important Food crop of about half of the human race, in particular for the South and East Asia and now spreading to Africa. Nigeria is blessed with suitable ecologies for different rice varieties which when properly harnessed can boost rice production to meet domestic demands. The cultivable land to rice production covers five major ecologies via upland, lowland or shallow water swamp, irrigated rice, deep water/floating rice and mangrove. Potential land area for rice production in the country is 4.9 million hectares but only 3 million hectares is being cultivated. European Association of Agricultural Economics (EAAE) indicates that Nigeria is the largest rice importer in West Africa with an average yearly import of 2 million metric tons since the year 2000. Total consumption stands at 4.4 million metric tons of milled rice we produce only about 2.8 million metric tons. With increasing urbanization and importation of Food many Niger