"Impact of Transportation on Agricultural Practices and Production in Rural Areas: Implication for Sustainable Food Security"

Recent approaches to agricultural development, including food production and food security, have largely failed to reduce the absolute numbers of the food insecure or to ensure environmental sustainability. Whilst global achievements in food production have been impressive in the last 50 years, the global inequalities in food entitlements (ie., people's ability to acquire food and gain access to and control of productive resources) remain one of the biggest obstacles to achieving food security for all. Agricultural production is an essential component to the sustainability to the economy of developing nations as a whole and Nigeria in particular. Ease access in the rural areas poses a bundless challenge to actualize rural advancement efforts in Nigeria through agricultural reforms, as it has continued to make most of the rural areas to find difficulties in accessing markets for their produce and vice versa. The problem associated with food security is not only based on the availability of lands and production. However, it also relates to other aspects, such as transportation, accessibility, stability, and utilization. This paper focuses on the impact of transportation on agricultural practices and production in rural area. The method of investigation used was questionnaire designed for the farmers. Emphasis was laid on the causes and effects of poor roads network caused by lack of provision for maintenance of roads, flooding during raining season which lead to the high cost of transportation from the farm to the markets and therefore reduce the farmers income and quality of goods available in the markets. From the data collected some effects were identified, militating against the effective and productive practice of agriculture in the study area. However, some recommendations were made to assist in solving the problems.