The Agricultural Option for Poverty Alleviation and Development in Rural Niger Delta: A Study of Rivers State

Abstract

The Niger Delta area of Nigeria, though having played an important role in the global economy through the slave trade, agricultural trade (palm oil and palm kernel trades) and now fossil fuels over the last 400 years, has luckily escaped close environmental scrutiny which tells on the health, occupation and general well being of the people. It has its peculiar and perennial problems compounded by instances of environmental pollution by oil exploration, exploitation and transportation. Infact there are no protected areas in the Delta and the rapid rate of destruction in the face of neglect arising from inaccessibility of the area, resource misapplication and conflicts paint a bleak picture for the future of its habitats and species. Poverty is the most distinguishing characteristics of the Niger Delta which includes the states of Rivers, Bayelsa, Delta and Akwa Ibom. The major victims of poverty are the rural dwellers who have become extremely hostile to both oil companies and the government. They feel they have received little or nothing in return, particularly in terms of infrastructure and general development for the more than 300 billion US dollars the Federal Government of Nigeria has earned from oil production in the past 30 years. The findings of this study have confirmed the disturbing nature of the Niger Delta situation: firstly there is a mass disengagement in the primary occupation of the people which is agriculture due to lack of government support or attention coupled with difficult terrain. Secondly, there is hunger that perpetuates poverty by reducing productivity. Thirdly all poverty alleviation programmes of government are riddled with corruption and are not properly targeted. The study views the poverty factor around the main traditional occupation of the rural dwellers, which is agriculture, and provided the statistical basis for poverty alleviation in Rivers State. The study evaluated the environment of the target beneficiaries of poverty alleviation programmes and assessed the constraints over their primary occupation, Agriculture, for effective poverty alleviation programmes. It also provided a policy framework upon which poverty alleviation and development programmes in the Niger Delta should be anchored using Rivers State as a case study. The researcher believes that development activities in the Niger Delta should depend on the type of economic activities undertaken by the people, the type upon which their daily existence depend. The study concludes that there are many other avenues of study in the agro-environment of the Niger-Delta Area.