In this article, we are going to treat the concept of Rural Infrastructure and its characteristics and types of Rural Infrastructure and their effects. The issue of infrastructure has assumed increasing importance in Nigeria in view of the need for increased production of farm produce.
In this article, you should be able to define the characteristics of rural infrastructure, identify the typology of rural infrastructure, identify the effects of rural infrastructure and state the provision of rural infrastructure.
Definition and Characteristics of Rural Infrastructure
Rural
infrastructure, according to Idachaba and Olayide (1980) is defined to include
the system of physical, human and institutional forms of capital which enable
rural residents to better perform their production, processing and distribution
activities as well as helping to improve the overall quality of life. The most
basic elements of infrastructure comprise rural roads, markets in rural towns
and rural water supply facilities.
Rural
infrastructure also includes social infrastructure, most significantly rural
health and education facilities. At some higher level development, it includes
rural electrification, telecommunication facilities and access to electronic
mass media.
Rural
Infrastructure is a very loose concept however, sometimes conceived narrowly to
include only roads and water supply as well as social infrastructure.
The
definition here is broad to capture the concept that the inputs necessary to
develop agriculture - the major occupation of the ruralites and reduce poverty,
are indeed all embracing.
Agriculture
cannot be developed in isolation from physical infrastructure development,
rural health and education or even from sound urban development policy (World
Bank, 1993).
Rural
Infrastructure as defined above possesses certain characteristics. These are
heavy capital equipment beyond the reach of the average individual rural
resident, huge initial capital expenditures, benefits accrue to all members of
the society (or non-excludability in usage) and stocks of capital yielding
streams of services over a number of years.
Typology of Rural
Infrastructure
There
are four major types of rural infrastructure.
These
are:
1.
Rural physical infrastructure
2.
Rural social infrastructure
3.
Rural institutional infrastructure
4.
Rural farm infrastructure
Rural
physical infrastructure is defined to include:
a)
Transportation systems such as feeder roads, access roads, rail roads, bridges,
ferry services, boats, ports, footpaths, etc.
b)
Processing facilities such as public processing facilities, machinery,
equipment, buildings, etc,
c)
Communication systems such as rural telephone services postal agencies, etc.
Rural
social infrastructure is defined to include:
a)
Health facilities such as hospitals, dispensaries, maternity health services
among others.
b)
Educational facilities such as primary schools, secondary schools, adult
education facilities etc.
c)
Rural utilities such as rural electrification, power supplies and waters
supplies.
The
adequate provision of these services will tend to raise the productivity of
small farmers as well as stem the rising rural-urban drift.
Rural
institutional infrastructure includes:
a)
Rural organizations such as cooperatives, farmers’ unions, etc.
b)
Rural-based projects such as community projects, etc.
c)
Financial institutions such as credit societies, banks, government credit
institutions, post office saving banks, etc.
d)
Agricultural research facilities such as research substations, experimental-out
lying farms, schools of agriculture, demonstration plots, etc.
e)
Agricultural extension services
f)
Crop-animal protection - control-grading services.
g)
Soil conservation services (Olajide and Falusi 1999)
Essentially,
the institutional facilities have to be mobilized or fully financed, or
promoted as the case may be by the public sector or government.
It
is the ineffective promotion, financial support and mobilization of these
facilities by government in various parts of Nigeria that is also responsible
for the dearth of small farmers.
Rural
farm infrastructure is defined to include:
a)
Storage facilities such as silos, warehouses, go-downs, farm bins, open-air
storage facilities, etc.
b)
Irrigation water facilities such as dams, irrigation canals and tributaries,
bore-holes, drainage systems, etc.
c)
Land clearing and preparation systems
d)
Farm inputs supply systems such as seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, etc.
e)
Farm roads development/improvement facilities.
It
is the rural farm infrastructure that is of direct benefit to the small farmers
(Olayide 1998).
It
is this class of infrastructure that has to be given immediate attention as a
means of increasing the productivity and aggregate output of small farmers in
Nigeria.
Most
rural dwellers in Nigeria derive water from streams and shallow ponds. Bicycles
service as a very important means of transporting rural products to urban
market.
Effects of Rural Infrastructure
1. Production Effects
There
are three classes of production effects of Rural infrastructure. First are the
direct production effects.
These
include important contribution to increased production of farm and non-farm
goads, enhancement of productive ability of rural people through better health
facilities, better decision-making by producers through education that provides
access to information and functional literacy, and better farm products arising
from the results of research institutions.
Second
are the indirect production effects that come from the facilitating role of
rural infrastructural facilities.
These
include the effects of education on production-distribution management and the
effects of improved facilitates on access to opportunities in decision making,
marketing and farm supplies or inputs.
Third
is the stabilization of agricultural production.
These
effects include farmer operation at near equilibrium levels of optimum
production, control of erratic fluctuations in farm production through the
interplay of research and extension services, stable production and
distribution arising from workable farm calendar and “market outlook”
information systems and stable release of produce arising from provision of
dependable storage facilities for the “marketable surpluses”.
2. Income Effects
Rural
infrastructure’s direct production effects are translated or transformed into
enhanced incomes emanating from increased output and farm produce due to
adequate storage facilities. It ensures the stabilization of rural farm and non-farm
incomes.
The
provision of rural educational credit and institutional facilities combine to
progressively eradicate rural poverty through access to sources of rural wealth
and income generation opportunities.
3. Welfare Quality of Life
Effects
Rural
communities require more commodity and input programmes that significantly
raise and stabilize rural incomes in addition to the need for dignity,
self-respect, belongingness, social recognition and social participation to
ensure continual improvement in the quality of rural life.
The
supplies of communication facilities such as television and redifussion,
electricity, vocational schools and water in rural communities improve the
quality of rural life as well as promote socioeconomic integration.
Adequate
and timely information via efficient communication systems helps to develop
national consciousness in rural communities and therefore ensures
socio-economic and social stability.
4. Employment and Resources
Allocation Effects
The
adequate provision of rural infrastructures creates new employment
opportunities through construction or establishment operations, and
direct-indirect effects on farm and non-farm production. There is additional
effect of the elimination/reduction of underemployment through the provision of
off-peak non-farm employment opportunities that facilitate all-season use of
rural labour resources. Furthermore, Rural Infrastructure guarantees and
continually improves the allocation of such resources as land, labour, capital
and water in farm and non farm rural enterprises.
Provision of Rural Infrastructure
Considering
the above listed benefits and salutary effects of Rural Infrastructure to rural
productivity and socio-politico-economic welfare of our communities, the need
arises for an examination of probable methods of providing adequate the
facilities.
These
probable methods will be discussed briefly in terms of five major efforts.
1. Governmental efforts: It
is essential that governmental awareness of the importance and effects of rural
infrastructure should be matched by equally important expenditures on their
provision.
Federal,
state and local government in Nigeria will need to ensure that about ten
percent of planned expenditures in the 1990s will to be allocated to rural
infrastructural development to ensure rapid and successful integrated rural
development in Nigeria.
2. The class of community
efforts at contributing positively and significantly to the adequate provision
of rural infrastructure: In the field of environmental
hygiene-wealth facilities, rural roads, processing facilities and community
development projects, the role of self-help mechanisms with governmental
matching grants cannot be overemphasized.
The
village approach to the stimulation of community efforts promises the most
powerful strategy and tools for adequate provision of rural infrastructures.
3. Cooperative efforts:
Here again, the village approach through cooperatives promises an effective
mechanism for the supply of rural infrastructure. Multiple purpose and
single-purpose cooperatives can through service associations provide rural
infrastructure at cost.
Examples
include rural electrification, rural water supplies, irrigation supplies, rural
telephone services, rural health clinics, rural transportation services, etc.
processing and credit cooperatives organized on intra-village and inter-village
basis constitute an effective mechanism for the provision of rural
infrastructure (Schiller, 2002).
4. River B as in
Development Authorities (RBDAs) efforts: This body, by its enabling
decree, is established to undertake specific functions in addition to the
provision of rural infrastructure. Four types of Rural Infrastructure can be
effectively provided by RBDAs.
First
is energy supplies through hydro power installed in dams and reservoirs.
Second
are water recreation facilities for such activities as swimming, boating and
fishing.
Third
is water recirculation, a conservational programme designed to reduce the rate
of disappearance of water or withdrawal of water in industry for coating
purposes as well as reclaim municipal waste discharge, through on-site
reutilisation and return flow use.
Fourth
is navigation through construction of canals/roads in swamp lands, boat
transportation and hoover craft transportation over mash land and swamplands
that cannot be canalised (Olayide et al 199).
5. Research efforts:
The research efforts in the provision of rural infrastructure can be
effectively mobilized by public/governmental/public research institutes,
research centres/bureaux, research consortium, research commissions, research
associations, and intentional research agencies. Research into infrastructure
can take many forms.
These
include exploratory, utilization, cost-returns, production-design or prototype
development, management and forecasting research. Since the issue of research
infrastructures has been given very little or no attention in Nigeria, the
needs arises for a dynamic and purposeful infrastructures research policy.
Conclusion on Definition, Characteristics, Typology, Effects,
Provision of Rural Infrastructure
This
article has examined in fairly general terms the issue of Rural Infrastructure.
It is expected that by now you should be able to comprehend the conceptual
issues of rural infrastructure.
Considering
the fact that rural physical, rural social, rural institutional and rural farm
infrastructure are necessary pre-requisites for rapid integrated rural
development, the financial aspects on their provision to date seemed
inadequate.
The fact must be emphasized that Rural Infrastructure has beneficial production, income, employment, resource allocation and socio-economic welfare effects on rural communities.
Consequently, governmental, community, farmer-cooperative,
river basin authority and research effects have to be mobilized and adequately
funded to ensure adequate supplies of rural infrastructure necessary for rapid
integrated rural development of our communities and their farm and non -farm
enterprises.
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