ABSTRACT
Rice is a leading staple crop in Nigeria; it is cultivated and consumed in all parts of the country. Over the years, Nigeria has been producing the crop below its potentials. This has given rise to importation in order to fill the wide demand and supply gap with resultant effects on the nation’s foreign exchange. Hence, this study examined newspaper coverage of agricultural transformation agenda in rice production. The study adopted content analysis as its research design. The population of study is all editions of four purposively selected newspapers- The Guardian, Daily Sun, Vanguard and Daily Trust published between 1st of January 2014 and 31st December 2014. Using constructed week sampling technique, the study arrived at 336 as sample size. The Holsti’s inter-coder reliability check was used. The data were analyzed using code sheets and descriptive statistics. The result of the study showed that although 92.8% of the newspapers reports were positive, they were not in depth enough to adequately address the burning issues surrounding the initiative. The study also revealed that 98.3% of stories were published on inside pages of the newspapers, indicating lack of prominence. The study therefore concludes that newspapers’ coverage of rice transformation agenda has not been impressive. Based on these findings, this study recommends among other things, that the Nigerian press should endeavour to give adequate attention to issues concerning agriculture just as attention is given to other sectors.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page
Table of contents
List of tables
List of figures
Abstract
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study
1.2 Statement of Problem
1.3 Objectives of the Study
1.4 Research Questions
1.5 Significance of the Study
1.6 Scope of the Study
1.7 Operational Definition of Terms
References
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 Focus of the Review
2.1 Rice production in Nigeria
2.2 Review of government intervention programmes on rice production in Nigeria
2.3 Challenges of rice production in Nigeria
2.4 Review of related empirical studies
2.5 Theoretical framework
References
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Design
3.2 Population of Study
3.3 Sample Size
3.4 Sampling Techniques
3.5 Units of Analysis/Content Category
3.6 Instrument for Data collection
3.7 Validity and Reliability of instruments
3.8 Method of Data Analysis and Presentation
References
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
4.1 Description of the sample
4.2 Data Presentation and Analysis
4.3 Discussion of findings
References
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary of findings
5.2 Conclusion
5.3 Recommendations
Bibliography
Appendix
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study
Agriculture is an important sector of the Nigerian economy with high potentials for
employment generation, food security and poverty reduction. According to Azih (2011, p.12)
“The agricultural sector in the 1960s provided the main source of employment, income and
foreign exchange earnings for Nigeria”. This was due to focused regional policies based on
commodity comparative advantage. Oluigbo (2012, p.4), added that:
As at 1961, Nigeria was the leading exporter of groundnut with a world’s share of 42%. The country also had 27% of the world’s palm oil export, 18% of cocoa and 1.4% of cotton as the major West African cotton exporter. Up to the early 1970s, agriculture accounted for well over 80 percent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the major value of the country’s exports.
Regrettably, the discovery of crude oil in the late 1960s and the huge financial gains
benefitted from it; made the government to shift its priority from agriculture to crude oil and
relied on food importation as a means of feeding her citizens.
Consequently, the “glory” of agriculture declined over the years. Hence, Nigeria’s
dominance in the export of cash crops like groundnut, cocoa, palm oil, cotton etc was eclipse by
China, United States of America (USA), Argentina, Indonesia, Malaysia and Cote d’voire. As a
result, “Nigeria is currently one of the largest importers of food in the world, spending over $10
billion annually importing wheat, rice, sugar and fish” (Azih, 2011, p.9). In the same vein, Obasi
(2012,p.26), lamented thus “I wonder always, why a country that has 84 million hectares of
arable land will be spending $11 billion importing basic foods such as wheat, rice, fish and
sugar…I am fully convinced that Nigeria has no business importing food. Nigeria should be a
major net exporter of food”.
Petroleum thus became the pivot around which the nation’s economy revolved such that today, any quake in that sector has adverse negative effects on the whole economy (Azih 2011, p.10).
Concerned about her sole dependence on crude oil for its foreign exchange and food importation as a means of achieving food security, the Nigerian government over the years has made several policies aimed at reviving and developing her agricultural sector. Precisely, since the late1970’s, several intervention policies and programmes have been executed by different governments aimed at redirecting Nigerians to the farms. Examples of such policies include the River Basin Development Programme (RBDP), Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), Green Revolution (GR), the Directorate for Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI), Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) etc. Notwithstanding these interventions, import bills of Nigeria kept soaring such that she imports approximately US$3.5 billion in food products annually making food imports to grow at an unsustainable rate of 11% per annum (Osuoha 2014, p.89).
As part of the Federal Government of Nigeria’s effort to revamp the agriculture sector, ensure food security, diversify the economy and enhance foreign exchange earnings, the Jonathan administration embarked on Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA).
In the pursuit of this, Ayanwale & Amusan (2011,p.12) posit that “ the Agricultural Transformation Agenda set out to create over 3.5 million jobs from rice, cassava, sorghum and cotton value chains, with many more jobs to come from other value chains under implementation”.
The Rice Transformation Agenda (RTA) is a subsidiary that is built into the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA). Rice is a unique crop that is grown in virtually all parts of Nigeria; this is because it requires a wide range of temperature between 20 and 38°C during....
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