Revising the Roads Investment Strategy in Rural Areas: An Application for Uganda
81 Pages Posted: 20 Apr 2016
Date Written: September 1, 2009
Abstract
Based on extensive data collection in Uganda, this paper demonstrates that the rural access index, as defined today, should not be a government objective because the benefit of such investment is minimal, whereas achieving rural accessibility at less than 2 kilometers would require massive investments that are not sustainable. Taking into account the fact that plot size is limited on average to less than 1 hectare, a farmer's transport requirement is usually minimal and does not necessarily involve massive investments in infrastructure. This is because most farmers cannot fully load atruck or pay for this service and, even if productivity were to increase significantly, the production threshold would not be reached by most individual farmers. Therefore, in terms of public policy, maintenance of the existing rural roads rather than opening new roads should be given priority; the district feeder road allocation maintenance formula should be revised to take into account economic potential and, finally, policy makers should devote their attention to innovative marketing models from other countries where smallholder loads are consolidated through private-based consolidators.
Keywords: Transport Economics Policy & Planning, Rural Roads & Transport, Roads & Highways, Rural Transport, Markets and Market Access
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?
Recommended Papers
-
Poverty and Access to Infrastructure in Papua New Guinea
By John Gibson and Scott Rozelle
-
The Poverty Impact of Rural Roads: Evidence from Bangladesh
By Shahidur R. Khandker, Zaid Bakht, ...
-
By Stefan Dercon, Daniel O. Gilligan, ...
-
Rural Roads and Poor Area Development in Vietnam
By Dominique P. Van De Walle and Ren Mu
-
On Measuring the Benefits of Lower Transport Costs
By Hanan G. Jacoby and Bart Minten
-
Livelihoods, Growth, and Links to Market Towns in 15 Ethiopian Villages
By Stefan Dercon and John Hoddinott
-
Estimating Utility-Consistent Poverty Lines
By Channing Arndt and Kenneth R. Simler
-
Poverty Comparisons with Absolute Poverty Lines Estimated from Survey Data
By Kenneth R. Simler and Channing Arndt