SUSTAINABLE RURAL ROADS DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE AS CATALYST TO IMPROVE AGRICULTURAL

PRODUCTIVITY IN NIGERIABy

E.O. Atanda1, P. O. Eleta1 and U. Ovbiagele2

1. Department of Agricultural & Bio-Environmental Engineering Technology, School of Engineering, Auchi Polytechnic, P.M.B.

13, Auchi, Edo State, Nigeriae-mail: olugbenga.atanda@yahoo.com

2. Department of Electrical/ Electronics Engineering Technology, School of Engineering, Auchi Polytechnic, P.M.B.

13, Auchi, Edo State, Nigeriae-mail: uma4hon@yahoo.com

Outline of Presentation• Introduction• Overview of Rural Roads Condition and the plight

of rural farmers in transporting farm harvests on rural roads to urban centres for sale in Nigeria

• Importance of rural roads to the economic development of Nigeria

• Some problems militating against evacuation of farm harvests by rural farmers in Nigeria

• Suggested Approaches aimed at ensuring sustainable rural roads development and maintenance in Nigeria

• Conclusion

INTRODUCTION• Rural areas in Sub-Saharan Africa are characterized by

poor roads (Okoko, 2010).• In virtually all the cases, these roads are perpetually in

a state of disrepair. • Yet it is on these deplorable roads that the rural

dwellers trek daily to obtain water, firewood, farm produce and also to secure services from such places as markets, schools, hospitals, etc.

• Rural farmers also rely on these poorly maintained roads to transport their farm harvests that are meant for consumption in the urban centres. Rural roads, therefore, play very significant role in the development of rural areas.

• In Nigeria, as in other countries of Sub-Saharan Africa, rural transport constitutes a major sub-set of the rural infrastructural system, and contributes in no small measure to the overall development of the rural areas.

• Rural roads connect settlements to urban market centres. It is therefore axiomatic to state that most of the rural areas in Nigeria lack all season roads, portable water supply, electricity while peasant and subsistence agriculture is still in vogue in different parts of the country (Nwosu, 1987).

• Nigeria is said to have one of the highest densities of rural roads in the Sub-Saharan Africa with a national average of 85meters of rural road per square kilometer while individual state values range from below 30 to 500meters (World Bank,1997).

• Despite this, Nigeria still spends a smaller share of its budget on its road network than the average for Sub-Saharan Africa (World Bank, 1997) .One of the major consequences of the low spending is the lack of reliable and well maintained rural road system, leaving about 75percent of the rural roads currently in very poor condition.

• Most of the roads are seasonal and useful only during dry seasons. Head porterage is still the predominant method of moving goods both within farms and the nearest roadside or waterside pick-up points (Adewunmi, 2005).

• Inadequacy, low vehicular traffic and where there are vehicles, they are rickety while low investment and outright neglect constitute major rural transportation problems.

• The result of this is that farm harvest cannot get to the urban centres at the appropriate time, thereby resulting into high rate of spoilage and decay at times.

• Idachaba (1990) observed that rural roads, grassroots based as they are, play the major role indirectly linking high priority food production areas with food deficit urban markets, and thereby reducing the huge post-harvest losses which currently discourage farmers from responding to new economic opportunities and price incentives.

• Farmers have been known to get discouraged when there is no efficient rural roads and good market for their farm harvests. Some of them prefer to scale down their production capacity to make sure supply does not exceed demand at any point in time (Atanda, 2004).

• Rural roads provision, maintenance and sustainability forms an intrinsic part of rural development strategies serving as a mechanism and catalyst to improve agricultural productivity in Nigeria.

• This paper, therefore, takes a look at the rural roads condition and the plight of rural farmers while transporting their farm harvests on rural roads to urban centers for sale.

• The paper also discusses the importance of rural roads to economic development of Nigeria. It also identified some problems militating against evacuation of farm harvests by rural farmers in Nigeria.

• Several approaches aimed at ensuring sustainable rural roads development and maintenance through government intervention as well as public and private partnership initiative in order to improve the present situation of rural roads network in Nigeria are also presented in the paper.

OVERVIEW OF RURAL ROADS CONDITION AND THE PLIGHT OF RURAL FARMERS IN

TRANSPORTING FARM HARVESTS ON RURAL ROADS TO URBAN CENTERS FOR SALE IN NIGERIA

The condition of rural areas of Nigeria is more pathetic since they are highly deprived of infrastructural facilities especially when compared to the urban areas (Akinola, 2007). They are often characterized by lack of basic infrastructures like pipe borne water, electricity, good roads and other related infrastructural services.

• Rural roads form the basis for transformation and communication and it constitute the most critical infrastructure in the rural area and by extension national development drive.

• It is just reasonable to conclude that majority of the Nigerian populace live in the rural areas with agriculture as their main occupation.

• The poor state of rural roads, apart from having undesirable effects on passengers and traffic flow, also result usually in substantial loss of perishable agricultural produce and high cost of transportation, marketing inefficiency and high cost of foodstuffs and other products derived from rural areas (Ogunsanya, 2002) .

• According to Adesanya (1997), only about 5 percent of rural roads in Nigeria could be said to be in good condition. He further explained that the bad condition of these rural roads is compounded by the poor responses to repairs and delays in rehabilitation by the responsible government agencies.

• The poor state of rural transportation system in the country do not only lead to high vehicle operating cost but also result in sharp increases in the prices of food items.

• Oni and Okanlawon (2006) reported that the neglect of roads in the country multiplies the cost of repairs at the end of every season and also sharply increase the cost of vehicle maintenance.

• Filani (1993) observed that most rural roads in Nigeria are unpaved, narrow, circuitously aligned and with narrow bridges, full of pot holes and many of them remain passable only during the dry season.

• Moreover, some of the vehicles that ply on rural roads are not road worthy and are also unlicensed.

• Consequently, they are generally slow, irregular, inefficient and unsafe (Aloba, 1983). Motorized transport costs are usually very high during the rainy season because of poor roads and incessant breakdown of vehicles.

• Adeniji (1983) reported that Governments at all levels in Nigeria have not been paying enough attention to provision and maintenance of rural roads due to the problems of low volume of traffic, periodicity and seasonability in demand for transport in rural areas.

• Thus, government rarely see provision of rural roads as a priority even though attempt at solving rural neglects had been the concern of the Nigerian Government over the years through such attempts like the Operation Feed the Nation (OFN), National Acceleration Food Production Programme (NAFPP) and Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural infrastructure (DFFRI). All these efforts failed to improve rural development in whatever form.

IMPORTANCE OF RURAL ROADS TO THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF NIGERIA

• Improve the mobility of the farmers, farm inputs and outputs. Farmers will also have easy access to inputs like fertilizers, improved seeds, chemicals, etc. They do not have to depend on the extension officers. Also easy evacuation of farm harvests will further reduce post-harvest losses.

• It encourages and promotes interaction among farmers thereby enabling them to organize themselves better, for example, formation of co-operative societies for their common goal.

• It will enhance rural productivity as well as strengthening the socio-economic, cultural and political fabrics and processes in the rural communities.

• It enables farmers to have access to markets and will generally reduce the cost of food to the consumers while increasing farmers’ income. This is so because improved access will lower transportation cost and make the farmers produce at lower costs. A typical chain for marketing of food crops may involve five or six middlemen before getting to consumers in cities like Lagos, Kano, Benin and Ibadan. Improved access will eliminate some of these middlemen.

SOME PROBLEMS MILITATING AGAINST EVACUATION OF FARM HARVESTS BY RURAL FARMERS IN NIGERIA

In Nigeria, rural farmers’ experience catalogue of rural transportation problems (Atanda, 2004) which include the following:

• Presence of bad roads or total lack of roads which makes distribution or evacuation of farm produce to market very difficult.

• Some rural roads in Nigeria may be rendered useless during the rainy season.

• The numbers of motor vehicles plying such rural roads are inadequate because of the bad rural roads condition, high cost of vehicles, vehicle spare parts, etc.

• High cost of transportation due to bad roads and inadequate vehicles and other means of transportation.

• High cost of transport increases farmers’ cost of production and farm produce prices.

• Most farms in rural areas are not linked to roads and this eventually leads to wastage of farm harvests.

• Inadequate diversification of means of transportation of farm harvests, for example inadequacy of rail networks which is very essential for the transportation of agricultural goods.

SUGGESTED APPROACHES AIMED AT ENSURING SUSTAINABLE RURAL ROADS DEVELOPMENT AND MAINTENANCE IN NIGERIA

To alleviate poverty, there is the need to accelerate the pace of rural development through improved mobility which requires better transport infrastructure and services.

The contributions of efficient rural roads network to agricultural and economic development in Nigeria cannot be under-estimated. Rural transportation, however, goes beyond just the provision of roads but the manner of provision, usage and maintenance carried out on them matters a lot.

• There is the need to collect data on rural roads which are inadequate and mostly in bad states in all the rural areas across the federation. This is because existing data sources in lieu of primary data collection can provide an excellent means of defining rural road problem and also a framework for development and maintenance of this transport system.

• There should be a well established data-base consisting of rural road networks, development, maintenance, transportation system, etc by the various local government councils in Nigeria. This is a necessary condition for ensuring sustainable rural transportation system in Nigeria.

• Proper and regular rural roads development and maintenance should be put in place by the various local government councils in Nigeria. Whatever reform option adopted by the states and local government councils, rural roads development and maintenance should continue to enjoy some level of adequate budgetary allocation and subsidy by them.

• There should be a clear policy for the construction and maintenance of rural roads in Nigeria which must involve the local government councils and rural communities.

• There should also be a National body to develop and enforce policies on rural roads development and maintenance in Nigeria. It is also suggested that with the scrapping of agency like Directorate of Food, Roads and Rural Infrastructure (DFFRI), the Federal Department of Rural Development under the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development should be strengthened to perform this important function.

• Government should ban heavy trucks from plying some rural roads. In the alternative, Government should construct heavy duty all weather roads in most rural areas linking the cities all over the nation.

• Agricultural and Civil Engineers should be well exposed to alternative methods of construction which will equip them to be able to analyze technological alternatives and select the best mix to various rural environments whenever road construction and maintenance is carried out.

• The recently created Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) should also extend their services to the rural communities as most rural areas are noted for bumper production of agricultural produce desirable for ensuring food security in Nigeria.

• Government should generate funds in form of tolls on good major roads that leads to cities, such funds can then be use to develop and maintain rural roads networks across the federation.

CONCLUSION• The development and maintenance of rural roads and its

resultant effect on the rural communities’ economy cannot be over emphasized.

• This is because an extensive, adequate and efficient rural feeder road network serves as one of the channels for collection and exchange of farm produce, services and movement of peoples including dissemination of information.

• Indeed, the development and maintenance of rural roads will form the most valuable aspect of rural development strategy as provision of rural roads is not only necessary for rural development but the manner in which these roads are operated and maintained to guarantee future use are equally important.

• All hands must therefore be on deck by all the three tiers of government in Nigeria to collaborate with various rural communities to achieve this laudable goal.

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