Contribution of Rural Infrastructure Development to Small Holder Farmers Market Access: A Case Study of Purchase for Progress Project in Bugesera District

Domestic food markets are generally underdeveloped, informal and fragmented. Marketing chains for locally produced food are often long, with the commodity changing hands several times as it moves from the farm gate to the final consumer. As a result, the participation of the smallholder farmers in the formal market is limited. This project focused on examining the contribution of rural infrastructure development to smallholder farmers market access case study of P4P project in Bugesera district Rwanda. The study adopted descriptive survey design and quantitative design. The population of the study was 574 farmers of maize and beans in three cooperatives in Bugesera district under P4P. A sample of 323 farmers was drawn from the population using Slovin’s formula however only 279 returned the questionnaires representing return rate of 86.37 %. Data was collected using questionnaires which was solely primary data. The correlation findings reported Pearson correlation coefficient of.85 with 0.001 value of significance indicating a high positive significant association between rural infrastructure development and smallholder farmers market access. regression analysis further reported beta coefficient of 34 % with 0.000 significance value indicating a strong positive significant contribution of rural infrastructure development on small holder farmers market access. The study recommends rural roads be rehabilitated and assistance in transportation of commodities to the market be provided to farmers and in addition farmers be assisted to access storage facilities for their produce.