Economic analysis of the sowing systems used in the production of rice (makassane variety) in the district of Chókwè, Administrative Post of Lionde

Abstract

In Mozambique, rice is ranked third among cereals crops and local production does not meet domestic consumption requirements. In part, this is due to the limited application of adequate production techniques. Several studies on rice have been conducted, however few aim to inform policy and decision-making. This is also true in the administrative post of Lionde in Chókwè district. The research consisted of conducting an economic analysis of the sowing systems used in rice production in Chókwè. The aim was to identify the most profitable sowing system using cost-benefit ratio. This used the experimental method by DIC (Completely Randomized Design) to obtain rice production data. The experiment consisted of four treatments namely: transplanting in rows (T1), transplanting at random (T2), direct sowing in rows (T3), direct sowing by broadcast (T4), arranged in 3 repetitions for each treatment. Through the experiment, operations were recorded from soil preparation to harvesting and bagging. The measurement variables are given in: yield (quantity produced), production cost and profit margin. For processing, data interpretation, ANOVA, Tukey test (by RStudio) were performed and the profitability index was calculated. Variance results show that transplant sowing is different from direct sowing in terms of the production cost variable and profitability index, which elucidates that T3 (direct sowing treatment) has the highest profitability compared to the other treatments.