It is an incontrovertible fact that the provision of access roads in rural communities, among other infrastructure, will stimulate the economic growth of the communities, while enhancing the residents' living standards.

Observers particularly note that the availability of good access roads in the rural neighbourhoods will also facilitate increased agricultural production and the movement of agricultural produce.

They, however, note that one of the drawbacks facing the development of the agricultural sector in Nigeria is the paucity of access roads which could facilitate the transportation of harvested crops from farmlands to various markets.


The observers argue that most farms in the country are located several kilometres away from major roads; while, in some cases, the farms could only be reached via crude footpaths.

Corroborating such views, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) notes that distance to markets and lack of roads are some of the major concerns of farmers in rural communities.

Analysts note that most communities in Baruten and Kaiama Local Government Areas of Kwara State, which are adjacent to the country's boundary with the Republic of Benin, lack good access roads.

These communities, irrespective of their high level of farming activities, are deficient in good access roads.

Some officials of the two local governments insist that the areas could produce food in commercial quantities, adding, however, that the main problem is the lack of access roads to markets, resulting in the loss of several agricultural produce.

Irked by the development, Malam Sulaiman Yaru-Yite, the Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Baruten, said that the deplorable state of roads had hampered the socio-economic development of the area.

He called on the state government to intervene by providing good access roads in the communities, so as to alleviate the suffering of the people and farmers in particular.

He also solicited the urgent repair of a road linking Ilesha-Baruba in Kwara State to Ogboro in Oyo State as well as the road connecting Kosubosu to Kaiama to facilitate the transportation of farm produce from the communities to markets.

Yaru-Yite noted that although the communities produced high-quality farm produce, the market prices of the produce were high because of the high cost of transportation occasioned by bad roads.

"On a daily basis, we receive customers from Osun State, Oyo State, Ogun State, Lagos State, Abuja and even the Republic of Benin, among others, who come to buy yam flour and other farm produce from us.

"We appeal to the government to rehabilitate the existing roads in this area, while constructing new roads where necessary," he added.

Apart from the construction of access roads, Yaru-Yite solicited the establishment of more banks in the area, saying that the only bank in the neighbourhood was grossly inadequate, as it was far from some of the communities.

Sharing similar sentiments, Alhaji Hassan Bagudu, the Chairman of Kaiama Local Government Area, urged the Federal Government to rehabilitate federal roads in the area which, he noted, were all in a derelict state.

According to him, a major challenge facing the residents of the area is lack of good access roads that will enable farmers to transport to their produce to markets in good time.

Besides, Bagudu said that the deplorable state of the roads was creating serious security challenges because armed robbers were exploiting the situation to attack people travelling on the routes.

"The state of these roads is not only affecting our health, it is hampering our security and the socio-economic development of this area," he said.

Bagudu stressed that it was somewhat difficult for the affected communities to engage in meaningful economic dealings with people from neighbouring Niger and Oyo states because of the high cost of transportation and the fear of robbers.

Recounting his experience, Malam Ali Yusuf, a resident in Baruten, said that he and his family used travel to Parakou and Nikki in the Republic of Benin to get quality health care services.

He also said that it would take him about five hours to travel down to Ilorin in case of any emergency because of the bad state of the road linking Baruten to Ilorin, the state capital.

He called on the government to site a good general hospital in the area, while upgrading the only hospital in the area.

Yusuf also urged the government to construct good access roads in the area so as to alleviate the residents' suffering.

In a seeming response to the challenges, Rep. Zakari Mohammed, representing Baruten/Kaiama constituency in the House of Representatives, said that tangible efforts were being made to construct or rehabilitate roads in the area.

He, however, noted that the Kosubosu-Kaiama road project, which was captured in the 2011 and 2012 budgets, could not be executed due to some reasons.

Nevertheless, Mohammed appealed to the Federal Government to address some of the challenges facing the transportation of farm produce from the area due to the lack of good access roads.

In efforts to address such challenges, IFAD says that new roads ought to be constructed while the existing roads are maintained in order to improve the people's access to markets, in particular.

It, nonetheless,  insists that poorly maintained roads, however extensive they may be, cannot meet the needs of rural the populace.

In the same vein, the World Bank estimates that returns on primary highway maintenance projects are almost twice as high as those on projects involving new road constructions.

In any case, observers insist that what is important to the residents of the rural communities is the provision of good access roads, irrespective of the methods adopted for providing the roads. (NANFeatures)

NAN