Integrated Crop Management Strategies for Sustainable Rice Production in the Benue Trough

This study examines integrated crop management approaches for enhancing sustainable rice production in the Benue River Trough agro-ecological zone of North Central Nigeria. Rice is a strategically important food crop in the Benue Trough area, produced across both lowland and upland ecologies in Benue, Kogi, and Nasarawa States. However, soil fertility depletion, rising weed management costs, and climate variability are threatening long-term productivity sustainability. This study uses a combination of field experiment and farmer survey approaches, testing integrated crop management packages combining improved variety selection, optimal fertiliser rates, precision weed management, and harvest timing optimisation at research sites in Makurdi and Otukpo local government areas. Packages are evaluated against standard farmer practice controls over two growing seasons. Farmer survey data from 120 rice producers document adoption constraints. Rice grain yield, milling quality, gross margin, and soil organic carbon change after two seasons are assessed. Findings reveal that the best-performing ICM package achieves grain yield of 6.2 tonnes per hectare, a 78 percent improvement above farmer practice, while maintaining soil organic carbon within 0.05 percent of initial levels. The yield advantage is driven by variety selection and fertiliser timing rather than input quantity increase. Economic analysis shows net income improvement of 145 percent above farmer practice. The study concludes that ICM significantly improves rice productivity sustainability in the Benue Trough. It recommends scaling ICM through farmer field school networks in the zone.

Keywords: integrated crop management, rice production, Benue Trough, soil health, farmer field schools.