Hello, you are welcome to this study class. In this article we are going to be looking at the various problems of agricultural development and their solutions. Get your pen and paper ready as we begin.
Table Of Contents
- Problems of agricultural development.
- Solutions to problems of agricultural development.
- Revision Questions.
Problems of agricultural development
Many developing countries in West Africa including Nigeria are face with numerous problem which militate against the development of Agriculture. Some of these problems are: inadequate land Tenure system, inadequate finance, poor transportation network, inadequate storage facilities, etc.
- Inadequate land or land tenure system.
- Inadequate finance
- Poor transport network.
- Inadequate storage facilities.
- Inadequate Farm inputs.
- Inadequate basic amenities.
- Poor marketing system.
- Inadequate agricultural Education extension.
- Problems of pest and diseases.
- Unpredictable climates.
- Inadequate tools and machinery.
- Inconsistent government policies on agriculture.
- Environmental degradation.
- Rural urban migration.
Inadequate land or land tenure System:
The following are the problems of agricultural development caused by inadequate land or land tenure system. Study about land tenure system here
1. Land cannot be pledged, sold or use as collateral by an individual.
2. Those with means, but who are not members of the community, find it difficult to get land for farming activities. That is, non indigenes of the community cannot acquire land or have access to it.
3. There is tendency to neglect parcel of useful land as no one readily considered it his or her interest to protect it from degradation.
4. It is characterize by litigations and misunderstanding.
5. Mechanized farming cannot be practice without permission of the whole community.
6. There is excessive land fragmentation over time.
7. Allotted land can be revoke by new leadership.
8. It does not encourage planting of permanent crops
Solutions To Inadequate land Tenure System
- Fertilizers and manures should be used to increase production of crops in the available land
- Crop rotation should be practiced by farmers
- The land use degree of 1978 should be fully implemented to minimize the problem of land tenure.
- Farmers should form co-operative societies for easier location of farmlands
INADEQUATE FINANCE OR CREDIT FACILITIES
The following are the problems of Agricultural development by inadequate finance or credit facilities
Most subsistence farmers are poor and do not have the finance to make the purchase of:
1. Land and agricultural tools and machinery.
2. Improved seeds, fertilizers and other chemicals.
3. Livestock, livestock feeds and drugs.
4. Materials for construction of farmstead or house.
5. Also, farmers have no access to loans or credit facilities to expand their farmland.
6. Farmers do not have the required collateral security to enable them to procure loans from banks.
7. High interest rate charged by bank as short repayable period Prevent borrowing by farmers.
8. Farmers who get loans, at times divert such loans to other purposes, such as chieftaincy and marriage ceremonies.
Possible Solutions
- Agricultural banks like Nigeria agriculture and co-operative Banks should make loan available to farmers.
- Farmers should form co-operative society for easy procurement of loans from commercial Banks.
- Bank should reduce their high interest rate to encourage borrowing
- Collateral security should be in form of guarantee rather than in material forms, like land and buildings.
POOR TRANSPORTATION NETWORK
Poor transportation network is another problems of agricultural development, here are the problems and solutions:
1. Presence of bad roads or total lack of it makes distribution of products to market very difficult, this leads to wastage.
2. Some Roads may be rendered useless during the rainy season.
3. The number of vehicles are inadequate because of high cost of vehicles, machinery and spare parts.
4. There is high cost of transportation due to bad roads and inadequate vehicles and other means of transportation.
5. Most farms in rural areas are not linked to roads, and this eventually leads to wastage of foods.
6. High cost of transport increases farmers cost of production and produce prices.
7. Inadequate diversification of means of transportation of agricultural products, e.g, inadequate of rail network which is very essential for transportation of agricultural Goods.
Possible Solutions
- Construction of new feeders Road to open up the rural areas.
- Construction of waterways to link up the rivering areas.
- Provision of vehicles, boats and train to facilitate the distribution of Farm products.
- Regular supply of fuel.
- Rehabilitation of existing damage roads
- Availability of spare parts at affordable prices.
- Reduction in transportation cost to make such affordable to the rural areas.
INADEQUATE STORAGE AND PROCESSING FACILITIES
The following are the problems of agricultural development caused by Inadequate storage and processing facilities and their solutions:
1. Lots of produce are wasted due to inadequate storage and processing facilities.
2. Improper storage reduces the quantity and quality of Farm produce.
3. Storage and processing facilities are expensive, leading to high cost of produce.
4. There’s lack of technical know how on food storage and processing.
5. Farm produce are sold off at cheap rate, leading to reduce income to the Farmers.
6. Inadequate storage and processing facilities force farmers to produce just enough for their family and discourage them from large scale farming.
7. Storage facilities like silos, rhumbus, cribs, barns and rafters are grossly inadequate. Study about types of farm storage here
8. Processing facilities like threshers, Millers, graters, canning and selling machines are also inadequate.
9. It may lead to scarcity of produce.
Possible Solutions
- Storage facilities should be provided by the government at subsidized rates.
- More people should be trained on technology of food storage and processing.
- Government should buy excess produce and store for future use.
- Provision of processing facility such as corn mill, cassava grater, rice mill and oil palm press to facilitate the processing of Farm produce after harvesting so as to enhance storage.
- Provision of storage chemicals such as fumigants.
- Farmers should be encouraged to construct cribs, barns and rhumbus for proper storage of Farm produce after harvesting.
- Provision of silos in the rural areas for storage of grains by government.
- Provision of cold stores for perishable product and livestock products
INADEQUATE FARM INPUTE
The followings are the problems of agricultural development caused by inadequate Farm inputs and solutions
1. Farm inpute likes chemicals, fertilizers, tools and implements are grossly inadequate.
2. Farm inpute even when they are available, are not supply to the Farmers at the right time.
3. Modern Farm inputs are not produced in Nigeria. Rather, they are imported.
4. Available Farm input are of inferior quality, outdated and crude.
5. Farm inputs are expensive to purchase and maintain.
Possible Solutions
- Farm inputs, like fertilizers, pesticides, feeds and drugs, should be made available in adequate quantities to farmers.
- Government should subsidize the cost of Farm inputs.
- Local sourcing of this input should be encouraged.
- Farm input should be supplied at the right time to farmers.
- Establishment of tractor hiring unit at affordable cost to farmers.
- Establishment of seed service for the production and distribution of improved seeds to farmers
INADEQUATE BASIC AMENITIES
The followings are the problems of agricultural development caused by inadequate basic amenities.
1. Lack of basic amenities like electricity, pipe borne water and proper healthcare makes able-bodied men and youths migrate from rural area to urban area in search of Jobs.
2. Poor processing facilities for farm produce.
3. Inadequate Provision of portable water for domestic use
4. There is lack of electricity in many rural areas for farm operations.
5. Lack of storage facilities for farm produce.
6. There is short shortage of water for irrigation purposes for all season cropping.
7. Poor healthcare services reduce the productivity of farmers.
8. There is lack of recreational facilities in rural areas.
Possible Solutions
- Provision of electricity in rural areas
- provision of portable and drinkable water.
- Provision of healthcare centers in rural areas.
- Provision of storage and processing facilities to rural areas.
- Establishment of dams to facilitate irrigation agriculture in rural areas.
POOR MARKETING SYSTEM
The following are the problems of agricultural development caused by poor marketing system and their solutions.
1. There are no organized marketing channels for farm produce.
2. There is lack of proper pricing for agricultural produce.
3. The negative activities of middlemen worsen the marketing of agricultural produce
4. Absence of commodity board to aid the purchase of Farm produce.
5. Inadequate good roads and storage facilities.
6 . There is also a problem or fluctuation in prices of agricultural produce.
7. Poor marketing of produce discourages more production by local farmers.
Possible Solutions
- Government should buy excess produce from farmers.
- Government should establish prices of Farm produce in the country.
- The activities of middlemen who buy produce at cheaper rate and sell at higher price should be checked
- Commodity board should be re-established to help organize the marketing of agricultural produce
INADEQUATE AGRICULTURAL EDUCATIONAL EXTENSION
These are the problems of agricultural development caused by inadequate agricultural education extension
1. Lack of improved/better Farm management decision making
2. Inability to procure improve Farm input
3. Inability to improve the Farmers social disposition
4. Lack of motivation for youths to take up farming as a profession
5. Lack of access to marketing information and strategy.
6. Inability to help the Farmers to understand and adopt modern farming techniques for improved productivity.
7. Inability to relay farmers problem to government ministries, research institute and universities.
8. Inability to convey information from government ministries, universities and research institutes to farmers
9. Absence of loans and their utilization.
10. Inability to keep accurate Farm records.
Possible Solutions
- Mass literacy program should be embark upon by the government, e.g, nomadic education.
- Adequate and qualify extension officers should be employed to teach peasant farmers new innovations and techniques in agriculture
- Rural farmers should be trained on modern systems of farming
PROBLEMS OF PESTS AND DISEASES
The following are the problems of agricultural development caused by pests and diseases.
1. Pests and diseases reduce the yield of agricultural produce
2. They also reduce the quality of the produce.
3. Pests and diseases also reduce the income of farmers
4. Farmers are also thereby Discouraged from production
Possible Solutions
- Insecticides and other chemicals used in the control of pest and diseases should be supplied at subsidised rates.
- Pests and diseases control unit or department should be established to control pest and diseases
- Farmers should be trained on easy identification, prevention and control of pest and diseases.
UNPREDICTABLE CLIMATE
1. Unpredictable climate generally discourages serious farming activities.
2. Low rainfall leads to poor harvest of crops.
3. Low sunshine intensity reduces the rate of photosynthesis which eventually leads to low yield of crops.
4. High or too low temperature does not permit the normal growth of crops.
Possible Solutions
- Irrigation practices which is the artificial supply of water to farmland should be adopted in area of low rainfall.
- Water conservation techniques, such as mulching should be practiced
- Teaching peasant farmers new innovations in agriculture
- Planting of cover crops like centrosema spp, calopogonium spp should be practiced, as it helps to conserve and prevent evaporation of water from the soil
INADEQUATE TOOLS AND MACHINERY
These are the problems of agricultural development caused by inadequate tools and machineries with solutions
1. Farm tools and machinery like Ploughs and harrows, tractors and planters are grossely inadequate
2. Use of simple Farm tools like cutlass and hoe leads to low agricultural production. That is, output per unit time is low.
3. Farm tools and implements are expensive to purchase and maintain.
4. Most local farmers are so poor that they cannot afford to buy Farm tools and implements.
5. Most of the implements are not produced in West Africa; rather they are imported
6. Farmers lack the skilled manpower in the maintenance, repair and operation of sophisticated Farm machines
7. It is time consuming.
8. The use of Poor tools discourage people from going into agriculture.
9. Inadequate personnel to repair damage machinery.
10. Working with poor farm tools and implements is very tedious and labour intensive.
11. Only small areas of land are cultivated.
12. It causes faster ageing in the farming population. Read more about simple Farm Tools
Possible Solutions
- Local fabrication of farm machinery and equipment should be encouraged by government to make farm implemens suitable to local conditions and be made available to farmers
- Introduction and utilization of modern Farm machines and implements
- Establishment of tractor hiring units to make the machines readily available to poor farmers who cannot afford to to purchase your expensive farm machines.
- Training of skilled manpower in the maintenance repair and operation of sophisticated Farm machines.
- Provision of loans or credit facilities to farmers.
- Provision of subsidies to enable farmers to purchase modern equipment and tools.
- Farmers should form co-operative societies to enable them to pool their resources together and Purchase Farm implement and machines
- There should be importation of appropriate machines and implements.
INCONSISTENT GOVERNMENT POLICIES ON AGRICULTURE
1. Inconsistent government policies on agriculture reduce agricultural development.
2. These policies fail to recognize the prison farmers that produce food for the country.
3. Most of the agricultural programmes are centered on fake city farmers who only collect money and use them for other purposes
4. Most of the Farmers do not have access to farm inputs provided through such policies.
5. Bad implementation of this policies reduce agricultural development.
Possible Solutions
- Dynamic agricultural policies should be formulated and implemented.
- Government should formulate policies that would allow private participation in agriculture
- The policies should recognize the true and genuine farmers.
- All policies on agriculture should be properly implemented
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
These are the problems of agricultural development caused by environmental degradation and their solutions
1. Desert encroachment exposes the soil to erosion
2. Erosion renders the soil unproductive and unsuitable for agriculture.
3. Drinking water for the farm family and their animals is polluted; thus exposing them to health risks.
4. Oil spillage pollutes the fishing and drinking water and kills all aquatic life, thus reducing the profit of the fisherman.
5. Acid rains from air polllution cause soil acidity and destruction of crops
6. Deforestation exposes the soil to erosion agents.
7. Overgrazing caurses erosion and hard pans
8. Bush burning damages the physical structure of the soil are reduces soil fertility. I have an article on the effects of Bush burning
9. Air pollution reduces photosynthesis and thus reduces yield
10. Plant population for livestock consumption is reduced.
11. Air pollution by toxic fumes from industrial gases reduces the quality of air available to the farm family and their animals.
Possible Solutions
- Flooding should be avoided.
- Cover cropping should be practiced.
- Soil erosion should be properly checked
- Terracing and strip cropping should be practice
- Pollution and deforestation should be avoided
RURAL – URBAN MIGRATION
1. It leads to scarcity of laborers, resulting to high labour cost.
2. High cost of labour therefore leads to high cost of production
3. It list to decrease food and cash crop production
4. It leads to decrease in animal production.
5. It leads to decrease in export and hence GDP (gross domestic products)
6. It leads to poor adoption of agricultural innovation.
Possible Solutions
- Provision of employment in rural areas
- Provision of social amenities in rural areas.
- Training of people on modern farming practices.
- Provision of incentives to farmers in rural areas
- Provision of favorable prices for farm produce by the government.
Revision Questions
- (a) Briefly Outline and discuss ten problems of Agricultural development. (b) State five solutions to each problem facing agricultural development.