Abstract
West Africa currently imports over 5.2 million tonnes of rice, which only accounts for about 60% of its needs, despite considerable rice-growing potentials. The main impediments to local competitiveness and increased productivity are processing and marketing costs, coupled with poor post-harvest technology and/or systems. This article attempts to review the existing rice processing in southwest Nigeria as a barometer for reporting the rice processing challenges in West Africa. Also, the end-use characterisation of some improved Nigerian rice varieties are presented. Most of the existing production, harvesting and processing methods employed in Nigeria are traditional; hence the low paddy yield, prevalence of high levels of contaminants, broken grains and off-flavour in locally processed rice. Therefore, for Nigeria and other West African countries to be able to realise the government objectives of self-sufficiency in rice production and processing; there should be pragmatic policies and investment in mechanised rice production and modern rice processing equipment/technologies.
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