Access to land is a critical issue in agriculture production in developing countries; it affects farmers’ productivity and the adoption of improved agricultural technologies. Using a multi-stage random sampling technique this paper examines productivity and land ownership among rice farmers in two Nigerian states. Descriptive statistics, total factor productivity, and Multinomial Regression Model were employed. The result shows that majority of rice farmers owned their personal land 39.22%, with 34.55% inherited their land and 26.23% got their land through lease/rent. The multinomial regression analysis result indicates that marital status, gender, access to credit, participation in contract farming, age, and primary occupation were the variables that influence rice farmers’ productivity in the study area. The study, therefore recommends that existing policy on credit provision to the rice farmers should be more gender-inclusive with low-interest rate and flexibility in payment, integration of female farmers to land access and agricultural programmes should be prioritized.

Keywords: Rice Farming, Land Ownership, Productivity, Nigeria