Rice Economics, Valne Addition and Product Development

**Chapter 10**

**Abstract**

*Nnaemeka Success Esiobu*

recommendations, Southeast Nigeria

**1. Introduction**

**183**

Does the Incidence of COVID-19

Lessons from Southeast Nigeria

Across Nigeria, while rice farmers are still battling the negative impact of climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought a new risk that threatens not only farmers' livelihoods but also the most important global food security crop "rice". Every farming season, rice farmers face risks such as low rainfall, price volatility, and poor government policies. But the present risks from the COVID-19 pandemic are putting new challenges in front of rice value-chain that is already under serious threat. As a matter of urgency, farmers must respond to this new threat by choosing measures that increase their yield. Incidentally, empirical studies that documented the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on rice yield cannot be found as at the time of this study. These create emptiness in research. With this present threat, Nigeria is likely to experience a reversal in the development gains already

achieved and will be unlikely to achieve the Agenda 2030 Goals.

**Keywords:** rice, perceived effect of COVID-19 pandemic, barriers,

globally and 1,123,493 cases across sub-Saharan African (SSA) [1].

The first human cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19, subsequently named SARS-CoV-2 were first reported by officials in Wuhan City, China, in December 2019 [1]. Retrospective investigations by Chinese authorities have identified human cases with onset of symptoms in early December 2019 [2]. While some of the earliest known cases had a link to a wholesale food market in Wuhan, some did not. Many of the initial patients were stall owners, market employees, or regular visitors to this market. Environmental samples taken from this market in December 2019 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, further suggesting that the market in Wuhan City was the source of this outbreak or played a role in the initial amplification of the outbreak [3]. The market was closed on 1 January 2020. The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global pandemic on 11 March 2020 [4]. Since 31 December 2019 and as of 17 August 2020, 21,852,364 cases of COVID-19 (under the applied case definitions and testing strategies in the affected countries) have been reported, including 773,586 deaths

The first confirmed case in Nigeria was announced on 27 February 2020, when

an Italian citizen in Lagos tested positive for the virus [5]. Specifically, across

Pandemic Affect Rice Yield?
