Building capacities and harnessing resources to facilitate developments that would help to improve the lives of the people in both the rural and urban areas is one of the basic role of a society. Taking Nigeria to be the case study, having gained our independence in 1960, focus on rural development has far been neglected for too long. Not withstanding the fact that, as a nation, we are blessed with abundant human and material resources including rich deposits of material, wide arable lands and water bodies but the condition of the rural areas in the country portray a gloomy aspect despite all of these resources.
The urban based development process in Nigeria has left the rural areas impoverished which has encouraged rural to urban migration. The rural areas are mostly engaged in primary activities. The rural sector of Nigeria is, very vital in the socio-economic development equation of the nation. They serve as base for food production, a major market for domestic manufacturers and also a source for capital formation for the country however, irrespective of all this importance attached to them, the rural areas are unattractive to live in and are usually characterized by low standard of living, illiteracy, malnutrition, wide spread of diseases, absence of basic infrastructures such as good roads, health facilities, electricity etc..
Programmes aimed at alleviating problems in the rural areas we’re put together and introduced by successive governments in Nigeria. Some of this programmes include, National Accelerated Food Production Programmer 1973, Operation Feed The Nation 1976, The Green Revolution 1980, The River Basin and Rural Development Infrastructures 1986, National Agency For Poverty Eradiction Programme,(NAPEP) 2000 and many others. However all of this programes and institution has not improved in developing the rural areas most especially. The problems continue to worsen with a huge increase in Rural to urban migration which has led to distabilizing the balance in economic development and as such can not be achieved as long as the rural areas remaining undeveloped.
Rural industrialization is a process that involves a continuous improvement on the rural populace. The importance of rural industrialization is to mobilize the human and material resources in the rural areas in order to improve their economic and social condition to improve productivity, increase employment and high income earners as well as provide the basic amenities needed which will serve as foundations to build industries when needed and for this to stand, it needs to be backed up by strategic and effective planning. If all of this are put into place individuals won’t feel the need to migrate but rather stay within their locality. To narrow the gap between urban and rural economic development and reduce the poverty of rural area, Nigeria needs to rely on the development of industrialization.
In rural areas, individuals and communities are experiencing a number of problems and challenges, which are proving to be major obstacles within the course of meeting livelihoods opportunities. The major problems include poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, homelessness , crime and violence. The individuals get effected by either one or more of these problems, which are having unfavourable consequences within their overall quality of lives. Lets expantiate a little more on this articulated challenges.
Poverty is characterized by lack of resources, when the individuals do not have adequate financial resources, they are unable to fulfil their basics needs and wants. Most of them are usually employed in the agriculture sector, farming practices, and other activities, such as, animal husbandry, fisheries and so forth. Poverty is considered to be a complex phenomenon which includes shortage of assets, monetary resources, malnutrition, social and economic hardships, unawareness, backwardness, discrimination and incapability to meet their livelihood opportunities in the right manner which leaves this individuals belonging to the rural communities to migrate to urban areas in search of better opportunities. However, this doesn’t end there, when in the urban area, they are either having to reside in the urban slums or are left homeless as they do not have the resources for housing accommodation, this proves the extent as to how this problem of poverty is of great disadvantage to them.
The second problem is the issue of illiteracy which is common among rural individuals. It is referred to the inability of the individuals to identify, interpret, understand, create, communicate, and compute. Apart from poverty, there are other causes of illiteracy which include, Parental illiteracy, Lack of teaching learning methods, Lack of educational facilities, Lack of interest in studies, Shortage of teachers, social disputes, child labor etc. Illiteracy is a social issue that is common among rural individuals, especially belonging to deprived, marginalized and socio-economically backward sections of the society. This social problem is not only detrimental upon the lives of the individuals, but impose obstacles within the progression of the entire community. When the rural individuals are illiterate and do not even possess the basic literacy skills, then they not only experience problems when implementing their tasks and activities, they are also naive about their duties and rights and remain unaware about policies and strategies put in place to promote their wellbeing. They are also unable to acquire employment opportunities.
Unemployment is another challenge faced by the rural areas. It is the state, in which individuals are not engaged in any form of work or occupation or task, primarily to generate a source of income. In rural communities, the problem of unemployment is severe among the individuals. When they are unemployed, they experience a number of problems and challenges, which are regarded as major barriers to attaining a better livelihood opportunity. When the individuals are looking for employment opportunities, they need to ensure that they possess adequate skills and abilities to apply in their job duties in a well organized manner.
Homelessness on the other hand among rural individuals takes place due to unaffordable housing, when they lose property, wealth and housing due to the occurrence of natural calamities and disasters and so forth. It is one of the challenges these individuals go through in search of a acquiring a better livelihood opportunity.
Prevalence of crime and violence is another common problem. The major cause behind these acts is poverty. Due to lack of resources, which are needed to promote a better livelihoods opportunities they start to build up feelings of anger and frustration and then they get involved in criminal and violent acts both outside and within. Women and girls in the rural communities are mostly subjected to abuse and mistreatment compared to the male counterparts.
The above stated problems gives us an insight as to how much rural industrialization is importantmost especially to the development of Nigeria. The success of rural industrialization will promote rural economic development. Secondly, rural industrialization serves as a way to solve the issues of employment of rural surplus labours. Nigeria has a huge rural population with very few employment opportunities, Rural industrialization can play a good role in creating jobs for these surplus labors and increase per capital income as well as ease the pressure on urban employment.
Another important factor is that, Rural industrialization is the driving force of modern agriculture. This is where the government is vital and should make great efforts to promote agricultural modernization, which largely depends on technological progress, mechanization equipment and funds brought by rural industrialization that will greatly improve agricultural production. This development of modern agriculture is bound to bring income increase and improve life quality of rural areas. There is need to attach importance to the integration of urban and rural economic development and promote the economy development by industrialisation to adjust the redistribution between rural area and urban area. Therefore There is need for the government to support rural industrialization in policies, investment, and fund as it in turn has a huge impact in developing the country at large.
In conclusion, If sustainable economic development has to be achieved it is Important that rural industrialisation must be a priority. For rural Industrialisation modernization of agriculture is the most important requisite. This will lead to improvement in the economic conditions of the rural masses and increase purchasing power of the rural masses. Also, The prescriptions currently on offer do not always capture the pace of change in rural area development thinking is changing and therefore rural industrialisation policy needs to keep up.