Description
CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION Background of the study Many farmers in Enugu State engage in rice production with the aim of enhancing their income and living standard. Rice is scientifically known as Oryza Sativa. Rice in the view of Tsado, (2000) is one of the world?s most important annual cereal crops, belonging to the family of Graminae, widely cultivated in almost every part of the world. The plant has fibrous roots, tillers, leaves with sheath base, well defined midrib and small flowers. The mature grain is elongated and enclosed in husk. Rice is the most important staple food for a large part of the world?s human population. There are many varieties of rice grown in Nigeria including Enugu State. Some of these varieties are considered local varieties, the local varieties of rice are named according to the places they are produced-Abakaliki rice, Uzouwani rice, Afikpo mass, while others were introduced from other countries like Asia. Rice is grown in paddies or on upland fields, depending on the requirements of the particular variety. Rice is the most important grain with regard to human nutrition and caloric intake, providing more than one fifth of the calories consumed by people worldwide. Fine and soft rice straw obtained after harvesting serves as one of the raw material for industries that produce shoes, hats and mattresses. Laundry starch is manufactured from the broken rice grains. Rice bran and chopped straw are equally use for feeding livestock. Rice is grown for home consumption and for sale. United States Development of Agriculture (USDA), (2008) explained that rice production is well-suited to countries and regions with low labour cost and high rainfall as it requires labour intensive to produce and requires ample rainfall. Rice is one of the staple food crops grown by farmers in Enugu state. It gives high yield under good management, and provides job opportunities to growers (farmers) which serve as one of the sources of their income to meet up their needs. Rice production has many enterprises. Enterprises according to Christensen and Thompson (1995) are establishment that has overlapping objectives which the implementers set out to achieve in order to make profit. Dumas (1999) stated that enterprise is a business that consists of one or several establishment and operates at one or more locations. In the context of this study, enterprise refers to rice business which involves nursery practices, field managements, harvesting and