An investigation survey was carried out to examine factors affecting processing and
quality of rice in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Nine major towns were selected from six Local
Government Areas involved in rice production in the State. A structured questionnaire
was used to collect information from three hundred (300) rice processors. Findings
revealed that 47% of the processors were males and 53% are females, 66.7% of the
processors have family size ranged within 4 to 7 persons, 63.78% of them have only
primary education and 22.67% have no formal education, 70% of rice is gotten from
middle men and 80% of the processors used their personal savings as capitals. 70% of the
milling machines used was obsolete being single pass type characterized with high broken
grains and 90% of the processors depend on diesel engines to power the mills while 7%
had access to good storage facilities. None of the processors had accesses to a rice destoner. The result obtained is used to improve the processing deficiency of rice in Ekiti
State.
Key words: Rice processing; milling machines; rice processors; storage facilities; power
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