Title:
IMPACT OF RURAL ROAD TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE IN OSUN STATE FARM SETTLEMENTS

Authors:
Ogundele, Ayodele Victor Ph.D.

Abstract:
Distribution of farm produce has been a major problem for rural farmers due to the lack of rural road infrastructural facilities. This study therefore sets out to examine the impact of rural road transportation infrastructure on the distribution of agricultural produce in Osun State farm settlements. The purposive sampling method was used to select three hundred and eighty-five rural farmers from all the nine farm settlements in Osun State, while structured questionnaires were administered to the selected farmers. Factor analysis was used to evaluate the impact of rural road transportation infrastructure on distribution of agricultural produce. Factor analysis revealed Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy = 0.792, p =.000 while four factors were extracted with a total variance of 66.346%. Furthermore, results from regression analysis using the factor scores generated from factor analysis as independent variables indicated that rural road transport infrastructure has significant effect on the distribution of agricultural produce in the studied area (R = 0.793; F–statistics = 147.888; p< 0.05) while all the four independent variables are significant with beta contributions of distance (14.6%), accessibility (11.8%), available means of transport (68.2%) while mode of transport ownership made the least significant contribution of 25.5% at p<0.05. The study concluded that rural road transport infrastructure has significant effect on the distribution activities of agricultural produce in the studied area. The study therefore recommended that the use of intermediate means of transportation should be encouraged in farm settlements.

Keywords:
Distribution, Rural roads, Farmers, Transport and Agricultural produce.

DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37500/IJESSR.2024.7406

Date of Publication: 30-07-2024