Abstract

The study was carried out in three villages in the Niger River region where thirty producing farmers per village were surveyed. These surveys concerned the field’s methods of acquisition, the tools used, the labor productivity and the cultivated area extent. The results obtained show that the most dominant mode of acquisition of the rice fields is through contract. In all the three villages, the areas cultivated with animal traction are 10 times larger than those cultivated manually during the first plowing and the second plowing (leveling) was carried out 100% by tillers. The productivity of plowing work is 8 h/ha with motorized tools against 1 days/ha in animal traction and 10 persons/days/ha manually. The tillers constitute the highest motorized tools used. They are 37 with an average of 1.23 ± 2.38/person for the farmers of Libore Bani Goungou against 35 with an average of 1.16 ± 2.25/person for those of Gueri Guinde Zarma and 34 with an average of 1.13 ± 2.19/person for the farmers of Saga Goungou. For animal-drawn plows, the highest number was observed in Saga Goungou where 45 were counted with an average of 1.2 ± 2.9/person against 41 with an average of 1.36 ± 4.94/person in Libore Bani Goungou and 40 with an average of 1.33 ± 4.82/person at Gueri Guinde Zarma. The efficiency of motorized hulling (125 Kg/h) is ten times higher than that of manual hulling.

Key words: Rice, productivity, animal traction, mechanization, Niger.