CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
Agriculture has been identified as the primary and biggest source of income in rural communities and provides employment to approximately 70 percent of its population (Pal, 2005). Hill (2008) opined that a significant proportion of agricultural task involve moving equipment and materials from one place to another which involve a wide variety of types and sizes of loads to be moved over different distances and types of terrain. Transport is indispensable to economic development especially in a developing country like Nigeria. This is because transport is essential to execution of daily economic and social activities in any given area. Girvan (2007) stated that transportation is a necessary precursor to the development of agricultural productivity and has a unique role and relationship with agriculture development because of the characteristics of agricultural production, commodities and markets. Crosssley et al. (2009) examined that transport operations are a basic component of agricultural input and produce supply chains and that transport can be the decisive factor for the success of a farm or business activity, or else the one constraint that makes costs prohibitive or renders a project economically non-viable. Njenga and Mbara (2005) claimed that transportation has the ability to intensify inequalities and deepen poverty if its negative externalities are not appropriately managed and thus transport by itself cannot have a decisive impact on poverty. Crossley et al (2009) recognized transport has a major component of the operation cost in the food chain and it’s becoming a barrier for small-scale producers and for the development of efficient, lucrative agribusinesses. World Bank (1999) indicated that the availability of transport provides the poor with better physical access to markets and other social amenities such as education and health services. World Bank (ref) further stated that there is ample evidence that the availability of transport enhances agricultural productivity by addressing the spatial dislocation and any unacceptable distributional consequences associated with lack of adequate means of transport particularly for the rural poor. Jacoby (2000) reported that road has particular important form of rural infrastructure providing cheap access to markets for agricultural output, thus improving access to rural transportation can stimulate economic development (Friedman, 2004) thereby increasing production capabilities of the rural farmers. Howe (2001) affirms that a better understanding of rural transport demands and constraints requires a more thorough analysis of the needs of individual households. Njenga and Mbara (2005) identified transport as a key ingredient in the development of rural areas which provides people with access to various goods and services. They further stressed that human development hinges on efficient transport which enables access to markets and service, information, opportunities and, networks