Analysis of Factors Influencing the Price of Paddy Rice in Benue State, Nigeria

The study analyzed the factors influencing the price of paddy rice in Benue State, Nigeria. Data were collected from 113 rice farmers’ marketers using multi-stage sampling technique. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and multi-regression model. The study revealed that respondents were in their active age, mostly males (65.5%), married (69.0%) formal education (79.6%), average marketing experience of 9 years and 10 members per household. Quality type of paddy rice, season and transport cost were the important and significant variables that influence the price of paddy rice in the study area. These were significant at 5%, 5% and 1% levels of probability respectively with an R2 value of 0.77. Based on these findings, it is recommended that government should construct new roads and rehabilitate rural feeder roads to ease movement of produce and also provide incentives to women to encourage them in farming. The three tiers of governments should provide adequate transportation system to help in conveying paddy rice from their place of production to the place of consumption.