Introduction
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The
quest to achieve self-sufficient food production is one of the highest
priority facing most of the world today. Nigeria in particular. This is
also a problem that threatens to be worsening all year round.
Food in
Nigeria is critically depended on transportation distribution, it then
become obvious that wide variety of Nigerian food would not be available
without the complex transportation network system, which serves as stem
food industry. Farm produce therefore depend upon transportation
facilities.
Based on the above reason, the impact as well as the
importance of road transport system should not be over emphasized,
especially as regards to agricultural produce.
Problems relating to
rural inaccessibility have contained to brother the world and in
particular Nigeria Agriculture. It is on this note that government and
transport policy makers should intensify efforts to improve the
transportation system especially in road network which is the main and
the most popular mode of transportation in this country. Their
collective and/or individual efforts should be directed towards fighting
against hunger as well as in providing necessary transportation
facilities and services and contribute to the instrument decision in
related areas that can help to assume the supply of addition of food and
its distribution to customers.
1.2 STATEMENT OF RESEARCH PROBLEM
In the
beginning agriculture and transportation are moving hand in hand. This
produce must be reasonably available and when produced must be
distributed to ports and factories. Also that adequate transportation
and efficient courier services operation are necessary condition the
affecting and efficient transportation network and a cornerstone of
modern marketing system. Transportation thus serves as a means of moving
goods, ideas and information geared towards increased productivity.
In
Nigeria, road constitute the most important infrastructure and
territory of sharp contrast in climate solid and vegetation which
hinders agricultural progress. In some areas, most of the road which are
essential for the evacuation of produce from the farmer to the market
place are often inaccessible all year round.
Most of these feeder
roads are unsurfaced, narrow, poorly drained and winding, they prevent
easy access to the hinter land where the majority of the farmers are
located. Even when such roads are in a fair condition there is a problem
of poor maintenance, lack of adequate execution capacity, lack of
suitable materials and management problems. All this factors attributed
to the low agricultural produce in Igbo-Etiti.
If agriculture will
respond to the growing demand of the rural populace then it will be
necessary to include a good rural structure with road network to reduce
the cost of flow of agricultural commodities, information and all sorts
for rural services to enable it contribute meaningfully to the general
economic growth.
This will help to accommodate the increase traffic
flow of input and output moving from rural areas to urban centers, which
will involve extra addition of maintaining rural road network.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
This includes:
(a)
To identify those factors that all directly and indirectly related to
the marketing of agricultural produce and to what extent they have
contributed to the use and fall of agricultural produce.
(b) To
determine the extent which road transport system has affected the
marketing of agricultural produce in Igbo-Etiti local government area.
(c)
To offer useful recommendation with a view to making the marketing of
agricultural produce in Igbo-Etiti more successful and effective.
(d) To determine the effect of road network in the marketing of agricultural producse in Igbo-Etiti.
(e)
To determine the primitive use of farm tools to produce staple crops in
large quantities that can be transported to other parts of the local
government area.
1.4 STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESIS
Based on the stated
objectives, this study will seek to base the impact of transportation on
the marketing of agricultural produce with the following marketing mix
variables which includes product, price, place (distribution) promotion.
Hypothesis 1
4.0 The high cost of transportation affects the prices of agricultural produce.
4.1 The high cost of transportation does not affect the price of agricultural produce in Igbo-Etiti.
Hypothesis 2
4.0
The perishable nature of agricultural produce affect the marketing of
agricultural produce in Igbo-Etiti local government area.
4.1 The
perishable nature of agriculture produce does not affect the marketing
of agricultural produce in Igbo-Etiti local government.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Increased interest
in this study is due partly to the gainful and developmental input which
agriculture can make to the economy and most importantly to the
tremendous impact of transportation infrastructure on regional
economics. This is because transport and development as well as
agriculture are usually regarded as closely related since each of them
influences the fortunes or the rate of growths of the other.
The
significance of this study is further highlighted. Considering that in
Nigeria, road is the only mode of transport by which all the states of
the federation are linked especially with regard to the movement and
distribution of agricultural produce from various rural areas of
production to the different urban areas of the state for consumption.
Finally,
the study shall also serve as a stimulant or reference guide for
further research in this area especially in the era of population
explosion and impending food storage.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
In Enugu state most of the
agricultural produce like (yam, rice, garri, cassava, tomatoes, pepper)
and so on are produced in the villages located in remote towns. Because
of differences in ecological factors such as climate, soil texture,
topography and so on. Some villages produce more or several types of
agricultural produce than other. Taking cognizance of the fact the study
covers gbo-Etiti.
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Product problem –
production problem confronting the agricultural produce particularly in
Igbo—Etiti has various structures such as technical socio-economic and
organizational differences.
(a) Technical problem – comprises of the following
(i) Inadequate quantity and quality of farm input and farming implements.
(ii) Low cost of agricultural technology and high illiteracy among the farmers.
(iii)
Inadequate infrastructural facilities for agricultural produce in the
rural areas where the back of farmers live, the farmers are
predominantly poor, there are good road to xx their commodities to urban
markets, no portable water and non-availability of electricity to make
life comfortable. These vices makes the youth to migrate to urban towns
for green pastures, thereby living farming for the very old also could
produce just very little.
(b) Socio-economic problem – comprises of the following:
(i)
High cost of agricultural production but low rate of return from
agricultural investments because of the association risks and other
cost.
(ii) Low productivity of farm labour Inspite of their high wage rate.
(iii) The land xx system that does not encourage high production and productivity.
(c) Organizational problem – The government had formulated a lot of policy on agriculture among which are
(i) The operation feed the nation (OFN)
(ii) Farm settlement scheme
(iii) Green revolution
(iv) National accelerated food development programme
(v) Land use decree of 1978
(vi) Operation back to land
(vii) Food for all and school to programmes.
These
programmes were poorly formulated, executed controlled with no
clear-cut and well defined objectives from the onset. Most of the
performances of government ministries, agencies and states are
conflicting confession and yielding no positive result due to poor
planning, organizing, execution, coordinating and appraisal.
The
nations agricultural production problems would be solved by devising an
entirety indigenous technique of increasing production efficiency
peculiar to its land resources and personnel, skills and management.
State
problem – problems encountered by the state could be attributed to
inadequate overall planning and coordination at the state and national
level. At present, the link between state and federal ministry of
agriculture we weak but plans as underway to increase the vital
leadership role of the state and federal ministry and to provide better
liaison between them. Shortages of qualified staff is a factor to which
attention must be given.
However, the biggest of all is economic farm prices are too low to an incentive to the farmers.
Local
government problem- problem associated with rural or local government
dwellers is the inadequate health facilities and bad sanitary conditions
and child malnutrition are prevalent. Rural well-being require more and
better health facilities better systems of waste disposal improvement
of water supplies and the introduction of health education and
information on better feeding habits.