HOUSEHOLDS TRAVEL BEHAVIOUR TO MARKETS IN RURAL COMMUNITIES IN AYEDAADE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF OSUN STATE, NIGERIA

Many rural households in Nigeria are less accessible to markets to transact their business. Traders travel considerable distance and pay high transport fare to convey their goods to markets for sale. This is because many rural communities are located farther away from where the markets are situated. It is on this background that this study examined the accessibility of traders to markets in some rural communities in Ayedaade Local Government Area of Osun State. Both primary and secondary data were utilized for this research. Three sets of data were required. The first set of data focused on the socio-economic characteristics of traders such as gender classification, family composition, level of education and possession of personal means of transportation. The second data required focused on the travel pattern of rural population to markets taking into account attributes such as distance travelled, mode of transportation mostly used, average travel time and frequency of trip to market in a week. The last category of data elicited was based on constraint of women to access market centres in the region. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyse the data. Findings reveal that the pattern of distribution of markets is in the study area is dispersed rather than random. Agricultural products and few manufactured goods are traded at Olufi central market in the study area. More than 60% of traders relied on Public transport (motorcycle), which charge exorbitant transport fare to convey their goods to markets. Arrays of goods traded in the market is the first major determinant factor affecting the markets patronized by traders in the council area and this accounts for about 17.53% of the total explained variance of the factor analysis. The study therefore recommends that there is need to provide community based transport services at subsidized rate for rural communities in Nigeria so as to enhance the accessibility of women to markets and participate in other productive activities in the rural areas of Nigeria