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

Millions of people in the rural area suffer greatly because medical care is not readilyavailable and is poor in quality. This study determined the households’ inaccessibility to health careservices and agricultural production in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia state. Thespecific objectives of the study were to identify the health care services available to the farmers in thestudy area, to examine accessibility of health care services and incidence of illness among ruralfarmers, 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 inthe study area. A well-structured and pre-tested questionnaire was used in data collection. Analyticaltools utilized were frequency counts, mean, percentages and Correlation analysis. Findings revealedthat different types of health care facilities available to the rural communities include; the modernhealth care services (general hospital, health centers, pharmacy/chemist store, private hospital andmaternity home) and traditional health care facilities (bone setters, traditional birth attendant, servicesof herbalists and spiritual healers). Out of the 80 respondents studied, 77.25% of the respondentsdominantly used the modern health care facilities while 23.75% of the respondents used traditionalhealth 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 analysisshowed that there was a negative correlation (-0.37) between inaccessible health care services and thelevel of farm output which was statistically significant at 5% level. It was recommended that thegovernment should ensure that health care facilities are evenly distributed among the urban and ruralpeople.