Influence of condition of road transport infrastructure on rural agricultural development in the Jaman South District

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JUNE, 2015
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Abstract
This study was designed to assess the influence of road transportation infrastructure on rural agricultural development in the Jaman South District of the Republic of Ghana. The cross-section survey research design was adopted in this research work. Purposive sampling was used to select 30 rural communities while questionnaires and structured interview schedule were used to collect data from 387 farmer households and 84 drivers by means of simple probability sampling technique. Data collection was based on both primary and secondary sources. Descriptive statistics technique such as percentages, frequencies, means and chi square was used to highlight the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers in the study area. The SPSS package was used to analyse data. The study established that less than 45% of the road network in the district was properly engineered and classified to be good. It was found out that, the average farm distance from the community to the main road or nearest market was approximately 2500m out of which approximately 1,375m was in bad shape. Most of the road networks linking the various communities to the main market were unpaved and immotorable during the rainy season. Farming in the district was characterised by farmers who owned small portions of farm size and used rudimentary methods of agriculture. This accounted for the reason why about 76% of the farmers earned less than two thousand (2000) cedis a year from their farm produce. The study revealed that, the type of road connecting the communities to the market had a significant relationship with the estimated travel time to Drobo, cost of transportation, where farmers sold their farm produce, choice of crops, the use of fertilizers, willingness of the farmers to diversify their farms and accessibility of labour. It did not however find a statistically significant influence of road transport infrastructure on farm size of the farmers in Jaman South District. The study recommended the development and expansion of road infrastructure in Jaman South District making use of local resources and technology to boost agricultural development which will further augment farmers’ income and general well-being.
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A Thesis submitted to the School of Graduate Studies, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in partial fulfilment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Science Development Policy and Planning.
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