Accessibility of Health Care Facilities and Rural Farmers' Productivity for Food Security in Uyo Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State

This study aimed at determining the level of influence of accessibility of healthcare on rural farmers’ productivity in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The study adopted the descriptive survey design, and was carried out in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. The population for the study consisted of all the 2118 registered farmers in all the 105 villages that makes up Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State: A sample size of 211 (10%) of the study population was drawn through the multi-staged sampling technique. The researcher developed an instrument titled ‘Healthcare Accessibility and Rural Farmers’ Productivity Questionnaire (HARFPQ)” for data collection. The instrument had a reliability co-efficient of 0.70 obtained using Cronbach alpha statistical tool, while data were analyzed using mean for answering research questions, and t-test for testing the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings indicated that the productivity of farmers with high accessibility to general hospital, primary healthcare centers and chemists were more than their counterpart farmers with low accessibility. More so, there is a significant influence of the level of accessibility of General Hospital, primary healthcare centers and chemists on rural farmers’ productivity. The researcher recommends among others that Government at all levels should equip primary health care centers with modern health facilities in rural areas to meet the health needs of farmers.