ENERGY USE ANALYSIS FOR RICE PRODUCTION IN NASARAWA STATE, NIGERIA

The study was conducted to analyze energy use for in rice production in Nasarawa state Nigeria using a sample of 120 randomly selected rice farmers. Energy productivity, energy efficiency and specific energy were computed and simple descriptive statistics was used for data analysis. The energy use pattern shows that, rice production consumed an average total energy of 12906.8 MJha-1, with herbicide energy input contributing the largest share (53.55 %). Human labour had the least share (0.74 %) of the total energy input used. The energy productivity, Specific energy and energy efficiency were 0.3 MJ-1, 3.6 MJ-1 and 4.1 respectively. A total of 10925.0 MJ of energy was used in the form of indirect energy and 1981.8MJ was in the direct form of energy. Non-renewable energy forms contributed the largest share (80.63 %) of the total energy input used for rice production in the study area. Rice production in the study area was observed to be mainly dependent on non-renewable and indirect energy input especially herbicide. Thus, the study recommends the introduction of integrated weed management system in order to reduce cost and dependence on a non-renewable input for weed control