RURAL MANAGEMENT AS A STRATEGY FOR REDUCING RURAL – URBAN MIGRATION IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF OWERRI MUNICIPAL)
ABSTRACT
Rural resources have a lot of potential which needed to be brought into full production as to uplift the values. These values can only be achieved when other resources like times, money, infrastructure, expertise and the like are applied.
The high demand of products is expected to propel the application of the said resources into maximum production which in turn increase the value of rural environment, confirming value to be a function of profit.
Unfortunately, government policies and programmes in the year past failed to reflect the need for balance rural and urban development. Thus, most development polices and programmes are urban - oriented. As a result rural dwellers have been subjected to poverty, unemployment, poor infrastructure, economic and social defects. Incidentally, rural dweller a stick to migration.
Therefore, this study on Rural Development. As a strategy, for reducing Rural - Urban Migrations in Nigeria, a case study of Ishiehi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State, seek to identify rural development programmes/projects extent of rural urban migration and factors responsible for rural urban migration in the study area.
From the findings based on the analysed data, integrated Rural Development Strategy has been pin-pointed and recommended as a feasible and viable measure toward minimizing the rate of rural - urban migration in Nigeria at large and Ishielu in particular.