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ABSTRACT
Since the introduction of the Asian varieties of rice in the Abakaliki area of Northeastern Igboland in 1942, the commodity has made some significant impact on the economy of the area. The growth in the demand of the crop consequently increased the space it occupied in the rural and urban economy of the area. This situation further spurred the rice farming revolution especially in the 1970s, which may have successfully taken the place or position of other staple crops in the area. In the 1980s, rice production surpassed or began to move beyond the subsistence, leading to the introduction of a market economy in Abakaliki. The growth of rice production and the quantity consumed locally also increased between the 1980s and the early 1990s. This expansion led to demand and supply deficits as the population of the people in the area continued to increase. Micro-economics states that when the demand for a particular commodity in a domestic economy is higher than the supply, the country will import from the world market. Thus, to supplement local production of rice in Abakaliki, government, the study notes, had to embark on imports. 70 There were several problems identified as a result of this situation. For instance, there was an indication that the local producers lost the motivation to produce rice for fetching low prices consequent upon the ineffective competition with the imported produce in the market.
