Abstract

This study assesses the effects of Rural Road Infrastructure on the distribution of Agricultural products in Akure South Local Government area with a view to providing solutions to the problems caused by inadequate provisions of road infrastructure and its negative impact on agricultural product distributions in the study area. The study evaluated the opinion of the farmers, traders, drivers who are the users of rural roads as well as the government officials in charge of rural road maintenance and construction. Furthermore primary data were employed in eliciting information from the respondent through the questionnaires and systematic random sampling techniques were employed in gathering relevant data and information within the study area. The result of the analysis revealed a significant relationship at 0.05 between the quality of the road infrastructure and the transportation of agricultural product in the study area at p-0.02 and r-0.186. The study concluded that the roads in the study area as well as those connecting the farms with markets are bad and recommended that these roads should be widened and bituminized as well as the provisions of other road infrastructure and the member of the community should participate in rural roads construction and maintenance.

Keywords: Agriculture, Rural roads, Infrastructure, Distribution, Transportation, Farm, Farmer.

Received: 18 November 2016 / Revised: 28 August 2017 / Accepted: 17 October 2017 / Published: 4 December 2017

Contribution/ Originality

The study contributes in the existing literature on rural roads infrastructural provision, uses new estimation methodology in examining the state of rural roads, originate new formula for investigating road infrastructure, contribute the first logical analysis of roads infrastructure, its primary contribution is finding inadequate roads and document road infrastructural needs.

1. INTRODUCTION

Transport is an important factor influencing Agricultural production because farmers need efficient transport both to link them with their markets, thus transport improvement has traditionally influenced the pattern of agricultural production (Okafor and Onokerhoraye, 1986 ). In Nigeria there is serious neglect of the rural areas in the provision of road infrastructure and other social amenities that improve the lots of the rural populace, these farmers reside in the rural areas where the road connectivity to the market is poor hence (John and Carapetis, 1991 ) opined that road transportation are essential for the sustainability of agricultural production in Africa as it impacts positively on factors such as mobility as well as the adoption of high yielding crop varieties, high productivity crops and bigger farm size (Sieber, 1999 ). Rural transportation mostly include animal traction, car, truck, train and other intermediary means of transport (IMT) such as motorcycle, bicycle, boat and canoe are mostly adapted for solving local transport problems with low and medium loads (Sieber, 1999 ).

Intermediary modes of transportation (IMT) enhance farmers’ timely access to farm, markets and agro-services. Research concerns would be to address policy issues susceptible to improve farmers’ mobility and rural accessibility while enhancing farm livelihood, assets and reducing rural poverty (Davis, 2000 ). Starkey (2001 ) noted a low adoption of IMT in rural Nigeria compared to the rest of the developing countries and sees this as a constraint to rural development. Ahmed and Rustagi (1987 ) further noted that crops remain un-harvested or become spoilt once harvested because of unavailability of vehicles during harvesting. Tracey-White (2005 ) noted also that mobility in rural areas could be hampered by the lack of transportation facilities and unavailability of good roads. He canvasses the need to study how transport systems affect the marketing channels and therefore the long term agricultural productivity. Kasali et al. (2012 ) also posited that if road quality improves, farmers have lower marketing costs and gain access to wider markets. They experience little or no delay in moving their produce and hence undergo fewer losses. An effective demand for transportation arises also from the presence of markets and the use of Intermediary Mode of Transport (IMT) would be viable only if distances are not too lengthy, while a multimodal system could be the best approach to rural transportation challenges. This study assesses farmers’ perceptions on rural transportation and agricultural Products distribution in Ondo state, Nigeria.

2. METHODOLOGY

2.1. Study Area

The study was carried out in Akure South Local Government Area, Ondo state. Akure south local government area lies between longitude 504´ East and 5021´ East, Latitude 705´ North and 7021´ North of the equator and has an area of 331km2 and the population of 353,211 (National Population Commision, 2006 ). The 2014 estimated population projection is 440,536. The spatial distribution of the population within the town is related to the level of economic development and government policy. Akure town is provided with different types of roads ranging from short avenues, street to single and double lanes and dual carriage roads. This local council boast of notable markets which are open for transactions on daily basis amongst them are: Erekesan market, Oba’s market, Isikan market, NEPA, Caring Heart Neighborhood Market, Aralepo Market and hosts of other prominent markets across the local government. There are large and small scale industries scattered across the council areas, these include sawmilling activities, production of soft drink (Limca, Gold Spot) produced by Benka Beverages Limited, Stone Crushing, Asphalt Company, Denki Wire and Cable, Owena Mass Transportation Company Limited.

2.2. Sampling Technique and Sample Size

A sample is simply a subset of the research population. The concept of sample arises from the inability of researchers to test all the individuals in a given population. The population of the study area is Akure south local government area. There are several methods for determining the sample size. In this research, sample size was determined with Taro Yamane’s formula. This formula was used to determine the minimal sample size for a given population size. Prior to the determination of sample size a population projection was carried out using this formula: P1 = P0(1+2.8/100)n where P1 = the projected Population, P0 = Present Population, 2.8/100 = The United Nation Population Growth rate, n = number of years between the present and projected population = 9 (2006 – 2015) therefore P1 = 353,211(1+2.8/100)9 = 452,869. The formula for determining numbers of questionnaire or sample size is Taro Yamane’s Formula which is shown below:

n = numbers of questionnaire or Sample size
N = projected population = 452,869
e = the level of precision, e= level of precision/sampling error at 0.07

The numbers of questionnaire or sample size is shown below:

Therefore 204 respondents would therefore be the lowest acceptable number of responses to maintain a 90% confidence level and a 10% sampling error. A sampling error of less than 10% and confidence levels of more than 90% was applied; the study therefore adopted a sampling error of 7% to determine the minimum sample size that could be used for the purpose of this study. So the questionnaires dispensed were two hundred and four (204), but 154 were retrieved from the respondents.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

3.1. Means of Transporting Farm Products

Table 1 below shows means of transporting agricultural product from farms to point of need, 20.6% of the farmers and traders transported their products by means of head porterage, 49.7% of the farmers and traders transported their farm produce with bicycle/motorcycle, 1.3% operates with personal Car/Truck, 5.80% moved their farm produce with commercial vehicles like trucks and pick-ups while 22.6% of the farmers and traders employed others means, such as wheelbarrow for the movement of goods to market. This means that the carriage of agricultural produce is the most prominent transport service between rural and urban areas, but the nature of rural roads (feeder road), and farm roads discourages the use of high capacity vehicle especially during rainy season.

Table-1. Means of Transporting Farm Products

Means	Ita-Oniyan (%)	Aponmu (%)	Kajola (%)	Total (%)
Head Porterage	0.6	1.9	18.1	20.6
Bicycle/Motorcycle	23.2	18.7	7.7	49.7
Personal Car/Truck.	0.6	0.6	0.5	1.3
Commercial vehicle	1.3	4.5	0	5.8
Others (Wheel barrow)	7.475	7.475	7.650	22.6
Total	33.00	33.00	34.00	100.0