1. Introduction
While rice is a crucial component of Nigerians’ diet, countries like India, Vietnam, Pakistan, and Thailand are the leading rice producers and exporters [
1]. Rice is the third most produced crop worldwide and is citizens’ main source of energy in eight African countries, nine in North and South America, and seventeen in Asia and the Pacific [
2]. According to [
3], it is estimated that by 2035, the global population will require up to 560 million tons of rice. Nigeria has set out to achieve self-sufficiency in rice and increased its self-sufficiency ratio from 33% in 2009 to 50% in 2020 [
4]. This could increase further given that the country has an additional 4.9 ha of land that could be devoted to rice [
5]. The competitive performance of the Nigerian rice sector could also improve if there were more industrial mills and a supply of high-quality rice; this could yield an extra million tons of rice per year that could be competitive in terms of cost and quality [
6]. However, rice production is low due to on-going use of traditional farming methods, the lack of irrigation, an inconsistent climate, poor access to credit facilities, and failure to adopt new technology [
7].
While Nigeria is a rice producer, it is projected that by 2030, it will be one of the largest importers of this cereal [
1] and that, between 2019 and 2028, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) as a whole will rely on rice imports, with the global price per ton of milled rice expected to rise from USD 447 in 2018 to USD 470 by 2028 [
8]. Africa has the potential to increase the supply of rice and become self-sufficient by increasing production. In pursuit of this objective [
9], a policy framework, the Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD), was launched at the fourth Tokyo International Conference on African Development. It aimed to double domestic rice production in SSA countries between 2008 and 2018.
As one of the 23 African countries involved in the CARD policy framework, Nigeria has adopted various initiatives to increase rice productivity to promote food security and consumption of locally produced rice [
10,
11]. The Presidential Rice Initiative, which was launched in 2002, aimed to increase production and processing of rice through the provision of farm inputs and a variety of rice cultivars for rice farmers at subsidized rates. The Growth Enhancement Scheme is an e-wallet initiative that was introduced in 2011. A database of 15 million registered Nigerian farmers was developed to notify them via text messages of agro inputs and loans provided by the government. Other initiatives include the National Rice Development Strategy of 2009, the Rice Intervention Fund of 2011, the Agricultural Transformation Agenda of 2011, and the recent Anchor Borrowers Program set up in conjunction with the Central Bank of Nigeria. The program, which aims to improve the livelihoods of smallholder rice farmers, will provide inputs for those who supply produce to Anchor at harvest and receive payment directly from it. However, despite these interventions, rice demand in Nigeria outstrips supply [
11]; furthermore, it does not meet international market standards.
Against this background, this paper measures the decision-making activities of small-scale rice farmers as stakeholders in the rice value chain in Edu/Patigi local government area against the sustainability dimensions set out in the Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP). The paper is structured as follows.
Section 2 reviews the relevant literature on sustainability, supply chain management (SCM), and food security;
Section 3 presents the methodology employed and discusses the criteria for sustainable practices in line with the quantitative data analysis and the Fuzzy-Analytic Hierarchy Process (F-AHP) multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approach;
Section 4 presents and discusses the results; and
Section 5 offers conclusions.
5. Discussion
Table 4 displays the results from the social dimension. With the acceptance weight of >0.1, a safe working environment and job creation weigh 0.323 and 0.247, respectively. This connotes that RIFAN members prioritize safe working conditions, especially in terms of attacks by Fulani herdsmen. Manual processing methods require more labor, leading to increased labor demand and job creation within the community. The storage system weighs 0.129. The RIFAN members indicated that such a system is not available within the region; as such, there are no silos to promote food security. With skills acquisition weighing 0.115, this implies RIFAN members’ willingness to improve their skills if afforded the opportunity.
Tax payment, quality assurance, and government intervention weigh <0.1; this is an indication that they are not prioritized decisions among the respondents and there are no platforms to enable tax payment and quality assurance. Quality assurance should be a means of checking produce for color, stones, and brokenness. A sound quality assurance platform will give rice produced in the region a competitive edge in the international market. Government intervention weighs 0.057, which implies that no policies guide the activities of the RIFAN members and other stakeholders across the rice value chain.
The results for the economic dimension are presented in
Table 5. Considering the acceptable weight of >0.1, supplier diversity and adoption of new technology weigh 0.349 and 0.21, respectively. This implies that the rice farmers have diverse suppliers of input. It may not be beneficial, as the suppliers are not regulated. This criterion is linked to quality input, which weighs 0.129. Drawing on ref. [
10], a structure was developed for effective sourcing of seedlings and fertilizers that would improve productivity and ensure traceability within the rice supply chain. The weight for adoption of new technology implies the rice farmers’ willingness to adopt new technology to enhance productivity and profitability. Profitability ranked third, with a weight of 0.129. The RIFAN members indicated that they make sufficient profit to employ more people. This criterion is linked to the job creation criterion of the social dimension with a weight of 0.247. Job creation is a social development sub-dimension of the social dimension of sustainability. Although the cost incurred in hiring labor negatively impacts profitability, the farmers continue to do so due to the manual production and processing methods used. According to ref. [
49], profitability estimates the profit made from the rice produced. The farmers should be taught to keep records of sales and expenditure with the aim of improving profitability.
Decisions on finances ranked fourth; this criterion connotes that high costs are incurred for input, labor, equipment, and transport. It also includes the decision on obtaining loans and credit. This weighs 0.108, which implies that it is germane to the rice farmers’ productivity. The authors of ref. [
49] described productivity based on grain yield and labor productivity. Productivity on grain yield gives the estimated productivity of grain harvested without adjustment to the moisture content. With this understanding, the farmer is aware of the differences in the various harvest seasons and compares them. Labor productivity gives an estimate of the farmer’s productivity, which is a function of the number of people involved in cropping on the field at a time. It enables the farmer to understand that the application of various management practices contributes to the volume of grain the labor of each person produces.
Loan repayment and transparency weigh <0.1. This is an indication that decision making on both is low or not prioritized. Loan repayment weighs 0.049, corroborating ref. [
5], who stated that the RIFAN members in that region find ways to avoid repaying loans obtained through the Anchor Borrower Scheme. Transparency weighs 0.028, which is the lowest; this implies that there are no measures in place to prevent corrupt practices across the value chain. It is also linked to the quality assurance criterion of the social dimension, which verifies that ADP extension workers check the grain before taking it to the market. This criterion weighed 0.063, which is <1, an indication that such decisions are not prioritized.
Table 6 presents the results for the environmental dimension. Water usage has the highest weight of 0.349. This implies that the RIFAN members make strong, sustainability-related decisions with regard to water usage. The authors of ref. [
49] identified water usage as an environmental criterion for sustainability, which requires that rice farmers understand the importance of the quality and quantity of water. This is measured by water control and irrigation. RIFAN members have a sufficient water supply and create water beds as a sustainable practice to control water flow, thereby avoiding water erosion and contamination of water.
Decisions on land usage and processing methods ranked second and third. Land usage is measured by how often land is treated after each harvest; the results indicate that sustainable practices are embraced and that the moisture level of the land is maintained following the harvest. The processing method measures the kind of method adopted to process output. The result is 0.140, which implies that RIFAN members continue to employ manual farming and processing methods and have not embraced technology. Weed management, which weighed 0.128, ranked fourth, which implies that appropriate decisions are made concerning the use of chemicals (see [
49]).
Chemicals such as NPK are used to manage weeds, although the recommended proportion was not measured in this research. Power usage and seed selection weighed 0.082 and 0.055, respectively; this is <0.1, which indicates that little attention is paid to decisions on the choice of seedlings and power usage. RIFAN members indicated that they use fuel because there is no good supply of electricity. The weight of seed selection implies that members obtain seeds from unverified suppliers; such seedlings affect productivity and grain quality, a reason for poor-quality grain.
6. Conclusions
This study adopted MCDM fuzzy-AHP to assess decision making in relation to the adoption of sustainable practices in the rice supply chain from the perspective of small-scale RIFAN members (rice farmers) in the Edu-Patigi local government region of Kwara state, Nigeria. The model enabled the identification and prioritization of the sustainability-related practices embraced by the RIFAN members towards the drive for food security within the region. Water usage and supplier diversity ranked highest, followed by a safe working environment across the three dimensions of sustainability. However, to improve the performance of the small-scale RIFAN members, government as a stakeholder in the rice supply chain should promote the adoption of sustainable practices across the rice value chain, drawing on specific indicators such as those identified in the SRP. The SRP is a voluntary initiative that aims to ensure sustainability through the efficient utilization of resources and best management practices across the rice value chain.
This would enable rice farmers to check for the presence of pests and beneficial organisms and guide the use of pesticides. The pesticides applied per area of land used for rice farming would also be recorded. With regard to water for irrigation, given the need for high-quality water, the source must be free from contamination. Rice farmers need to source seedlings, fertilizers, and chemicals from designated, government-approved centers or suppliers. This would ensure the use of quality inputs that must be used in the right quantity. There is also a need to enhance efficiency in the nitrogen and phosphorus make-up of the chemicals used and the ADP team should guide users in this regard. Rice farmers should be encouraged to use both organic and inorganic fertilizers.
The quest for food security can be best driven by government intervention, such as policies on sustainable sourcing of inputs, such as quality seedlings and fertilizer, a variety of seedlings, and improved or technologically driven equipment and methods. To ensure the quality and quantity of output, the government has the responsibility to facilitate the supply of resources such as technological equipment, human resources, an enabling working environment, and rice seedlings from high-yielding varieties (HYVs). This would enhance productivity and job creation all year round. The availability of HYVs could be facilitated by research and development to ensure the right variety of seeds that thrive in specific regions, regardless of the season. Government should also educate other stakeholders across the rice value chain, including a train-the-trainer scheme, and skills training for ADP extension workers, including the use of technology. The ADP extension workers will, in turn, train the rice farmers. The work in [
50] recommends that training be provided on the application of pesticides; age- and gender-appropriate pesticide applicators; storage of pesticides; disposal of containers; ablution and changing facilities for those working with pesticides; agriculture-related knowledge; the use of modern agricultural technologies; assessment of soil and grain samples. Farmers should be trained on how to reduce emissions and how to grow short-grain varieties of rice.
Lastly, the government should establish a platform to empower women to make decisions relating to their well-being such as personal and household income, labor inputs, agricultural production inputs, information and capacity building, and violence against women.
The limitation of this study is that the analysis was based on the opinions of a single category of stakeholders in the rice value chain. The views expressed are thus not representative of those of other stakeholders. Nonetheless, the research contributes to the body of knowledge by assessing the priorities and adoption of sustainable practices among rice farmers for SSCM using a fuzzy-AHP MCDM model. Another limitation is the criteria used. However, the number of criteria were reduced to ensure the use of the most relevant ones to assess the prioritization of sustainable practices among the RIFAN members.
Future research should include the views of stakeholders across the rice value chain, with more criteria included for the best possible rankings. The model proposed in this study could be used for other agricultural output or stakeholders across the value chain of other crops towards the adoption of SSC practices to drive food security in Nigeria.