Only 34 percent of rural Africans live within two kilometers of an all-season road, compared to some 65 percent in other developing regions. Lack of rural road connectivity seriously constrains agricultural production: in the absence of rural feeder roads, the cost of moving produce can be as high as $2.00 per ton-kilometer. As a result, some 85 percent of crop production takes place within six hours’ travel time from the largest cities.
Due to widely dispersed rural populations, doubling the current level of rural road accessibility from 40 to 80 percent would be very costly and entail more than doubling the length of Africa’s road network—from 400,000 to 1,500,000 kilometers (see figure). This suggests the importance of carefully prioritizing rural road investments based on the potential agricultural value of land. For example, reaching the agricultural land that produces 80 percent of today’s crop value could be done with a network of only 600,000 kilometers. Similarly, reaching the agricultural land with 80 percent of potential production value could be done with a network of little more than 900,000 kilometers.
Even where feeder roads exist, the rural environment presents particular institutional challenges for road maintenance. Only half of the existing rural road network is in good or fair condition, much lower than the 80 percent found for the interurban network. One of the explanations for poor rural road quality is the lack of local resources to fund road maintenance. In response to this problem, some countries have channeled portions of their national road fund revenues to rural roads, and this seems to have been effective in improving the quality of those roads.
Improving rural accessibility would entail a huge expansion of Africa’s road network