An Appraisal of Transportation Facilities Effects on Agricultural Development in Moro Local Government Area, Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper was designed to assess the state and effects of transportation facilities on agricultural development of rural farmers in Moro Local Government Areas of Kwara State. The study made use of structured interview schedules to collect data from 150 farmers by means of four-stage random sampling technique. Analytical tools used include Pearson Product moment correlation and Kruskalwallis ranking. Findings show that mode of transportation in the study area is mostly through headporterage and to a short distance, limiting number of produce that are hulled to the market with little income realized. Motor-cycles are used by some farmers while pick-up vans and small trucks are equally used with huge amount of transport money during haulage. Perishable crops like tomatoes, okra, pepper and yams get damaged in the course of transporting as a result of excessive heat and poor winding and bending roads resulting in loss of quality and reduction in farmers’ income; eventually discouraging farmers in expanding his farm size the next growing season. Furthermore, the study found that about 60% of the farmers sell produce at farm gates as a result of high cost of transportation. While constraints in using transportation facilities such as road seasonality, cost of transportation and number of vehicles plying the road with mean of 589.66, 536.46 and 501.50 ranked first, second and third respectively. About 64.7% agreed that these constraints affect their accessibility to agricultural facilities. This has a long devastating effect on agricultural development of the study area. To improve transportation
facilities in the area, there is need for rural infrastructural development and need to revive the rail-road system of transportation in rural areas.

Key words: Assessment, Transportation facilities, Agricultural development and rural farmers.