Infrastructural deficit frustrating Nigerian farmers
One of the greatest problems confronting rural farmers and communities in Nigeria is the absence of critical infrastructure such as ‘motorable’ roads. This is hindering market access for farmers in such communities who work assiduously to eke out a living from farming.
Nigeria continues to suffer low levels of agricultural productivity due to infrastructural deficit across the country. Due to the deplorable state of roads, farmers have to grow only what they can eat or the extra they can carry on their heads to nearby markets.
“The roads are bad; it takes me two to three days to transport my yam produce from Benue to Lagos. I lost more than 300 tubers of yam on my last trip to Mile 12 market in Lagos because the trailer got spoilt on the road and some of the produce was stolen since the trailer broke on the road for a night,” according to Godwin Apak a yam farmer in Benue state.
“There are times our yams get spoilt in transit; the effect of the sun is devastating and could be harmful on the produce while they are in transit. This usually makes me sell cheaper than I was supposed to sell. If the roads were better, the goods will get to the market on time for me to sell without it getting spoilt” he added.
Many roads are totally impassable after few days of heavy rainfall cutting off some communities completely from being accessed.
Even when commuters offer to pay higher fares, many commercial motorists refuse to go to such communities for fear that their vehicles would sink.
Farmers’ efforts to escape poverty and lift themselves above subsistence levels are still limited by the present poor access to markets, supplies and vital information. Local roads and tracks are often impassable making it difficult, if not impossible for rural families to access the urban economy.
According to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), high transport costs arising from the combination of scarce resources and poor road networks in rural Africa make parts of the rural economy only semi-open.
The provision of good road network is a pre-requisite for enabling Nigeria stimulate economic growth and to reach the targets for economic recovery and poverty alleviation by 2020: promoting domestic market activity and market integration, and facilitating and developing access to these markets.