The impact of inaccessible health care services on agricultural production by rural farmers in Umuahia North Local Government Area, Abia state, Nigeria

Abstract. Millions of people in the rural area suffer greatly because medical care is not readily available and is poor in quality. This study determined the householdsʹ inaccessibility to health care services and agricultural production in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia state. The specific objectives of the study were to identify the health care services available to the farmers in the study area, to examine accessibility of health care services and incidence of illness among rural farmers, to determine the relationship between inaccessible health care and level of farm output. Purposive and multi-stage random sampling techniques were used to select eighty (80) respondents in the study area. A well-structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used in data collection. Analytical tools utilized were frequency counts, mean, percentages and Correlation analysis. Findings revealed that different types of health care facilities available to the rural communities include; the modern health care services (general hospital, health centers, pharmacy/chemist store, private hospital and maternity home) and traditional health care facilities (bone setters, traditional birth attendant, services of herbalists and spiritual healers). Out of the 80 respondents studied, 77.25% of the respondents dominantly used the modern health care facilities while 23.75% of the respondents used traditional health care services. Malaria was identified as the dominant (83.75%) illness among the rural farmers. Majority (75.0%) of the respondents had no access to health care services. Correlation analysis showed that there was a negative correlation (-0.37) between inaccessible health care services and the level of farm output which was statistically significant at 5% level. It was recommended that the government should ensure that health care facilities are evenly distributed among the urban and rural people.