GREEN REVOLUTION THE IMPACT OF THE PROGRAMMAME ON RURAL-URBAN MIGRATION IN EKITI STATE
1.1Â Â Â Â Â Â Introduction
Like most themes in social change and development, the problem of rural-urban migration and agricultural development is a complex subject. One thing however is clear; the phenomenon of rural-urban migration is grounded in the persistent inequality in the allocation of social and economic infrastructure such as pipe borne water, good roads, electricity, health facilities, and industries, among others in rural and urban communities. This has been experienced since the colonial era.
To Braun (2004), people tend to be pulled to the areas of prosperity and pushed from areas of decline. Migrants are usually concerned with the benefits they hope to gain by moving and usually give less thought to the problems that they will incur as a result of the migration process. Migration is an inevitable part of human existence, with a long history. However, its pattern has changed considerably over time, from the search for space, especially in the middle ages, to that of congestion in large cities (rural-urban migration) in the modern age, especially in the last millennium.
Useful natural resources, which can be harnessed for socio-economic development, abound in Nigeria particularly in the rural areas. Coincidentally, Nigeria has a large proportion of both rural sector and rural people, which is a quintessential feature of developing countries (Akande, 2002). The most distinct characteristic of Nigeria‟s rural areas is the widespread involvement of the inhabitants in agriculture. Agriculture is the most important economic sector in terms of its contribution to the GDP of the Nation after Oil. The sector contributes about 41 percent of the country’s GDP, employs about 65 percent of the total population and provides employment to about 80 percent of the rural population (ADF, 2005).
In Nigeria, the rural sector is distinguishable from the urban sector in terms of the respective volumes of agricultural and non-agricultural components of economic activity that take place in the two sectors. Thus economic activity in the rural milieu revolves around the exploitation or utilization of land. It centres principally on farming, animal husbandry, poultry, fishing, forestry, food processing and cottage industry. It has been estimated that agricultural activity occupies four-fifth of the rural population in Nigeria (Olatunbosun, 1975:10). The unavailability of basic economic and social infrastructure such as water, roads, electricity and health facilities dueto rural-urban investment imbalance is one of the major causes of low rural employment, low agricultural productivity and low standard of living of rural people. It is mainly in the rural sector that much under-spending of planned expenditure occurs, as evidenced in the relatively low level of private and public investments in the rural areas. Unfortunately, rural dwellers bear the brunt of the incidence of fluctuating prices of their agricultural products on the world market. The consequent effect of this is the depreciating levels of income generated by rural dwellers.
