ANALYSIS OF SUSTAINABLE RICE PRODUCTION IN JERE BOWL, BORNO STATE, NIGERIA: ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT APPROACH

The study determined the sustainability of rice production at the Jere Bowl, Borno State, Nigeria. One hundredand thirty (130) farmers were sampled through a multistage sampling procedure. The data collected wereanalyzed using descriptive analysis and the ecological footprint model. The results of the socioeconomiccharacteristics of the farmers indicated that the majority (63.1%) of the respondents were aged 20-40 years.About 57.7% of the farmers possess non-formal education, 52.3% had a household size of above 4 persons and86.9% of the rice farmers had farming experience of equal to or below 15 years, while 56.1% and 53.8%earned above ₦100,000 annually from their farm and nonfarm activities respectively. Rice production in thearea was found to be unsustainable, with an ecological footprint of 2.49 global hectares per hectare, which wasfar beyond the 1.8 global hectares biocapacity needed to absorb pollution from the production activities in onehectare of productive land in irrigated rice production. Higher cost of fuel, unavailability of fertilizer and poorirrigation system were the major problems encountered by the farmers. The study recommended that farmersshould be trained and provided with a cost and energy efficient irrigation system to achieve efficient andsustainable production