Abstract

Mkpuma Ude, Iyabo Bosede Adeoye, Sulaiman Adesina Yusuf, Olubunmi Lawrence Balogun and Roseline jumoke Akinlade

Past government inconsistent policies were not successful in securing good market shares for domestic rice processors and marketers hence they suffered great losses. The study was therefore carried out to assess the competitiveness and impact of policies on domestic rice in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 60 processors and 60 marketers from the study area. Primary data were collected with structured questionnaire and analysed using policy analysis matrix. Results revealed that private profit was positive (N99, 063.11) for processors and negative for marketers (N9, 563.33) while social profit was negative (N4, 838.3) for processors and positive for marketers (N8, 473.22) for the output of a hectare of land. Nominal protection coefficient for output and input were 1.52 and 0.92 respectively for processors, 1.5 and 1.4 for marketers. Domestic resource cost coefficient was 1.41 and 0.53 respectively for processors and marketers. The EPC values of 10.33 and 0.17 respectively for processors and marketers showed that rice processors were protected while marketers were not protected in the area. The study recommends that the protection policy should be intensified since findings have shown that the enterprises were profitable.