Nfdp

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Agricultural development is very important to the economy of a developing nation as a whole and Nigeria in particular. It is the major occupation of the inhabitant of the people of the country while it provides employment directly or indirectly for at least 70% of the people living in the country. The government realized in the mid 1970s that the strategy of direct agricultural production was not yielding the desired results. So, there was gradual shift to an agricultural development approach which involved the adoption of an integrated rural development strategy (Olayemi, 1998). Under this strategy, rural development was seen from a holistic perspective with agricultural development problems being only part of a larger rural development concern.
This prompted the government to embark on multipurpose rural development programs and implementing institutions such as the Agricultural Development Projects (ADPs), the River Basin Development Authorities (RBDAS), the Directorate Of Food, Roads And Rural Infrastructure (DFRRI), the National Agricultural Land Development Agency, (NALDA), the Operation Feed The Nation (OFN), the Green Revolution (GR), etc. This integrated rural development strategy was also adopted during the Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP) era but with significant changes in institutional design, intensity of activities and modes of operation.   More than 75% of Nigeria settlements are rural in nature and economic development of these settlements is closely associated with the rate of agricultural development of these places. Transportation plays an important role in the political and social development of any society and whether in rural or urban society, transportation constitutes the main avenue through which different parts of the society are link together. As a society grows in terms of population and function, the need for interaction among its various components also grows thereby require...