PJB-2018-206
THE IMPACT OF NON- TIMBER FOREST PRODUCTS ON THE LIVELIHOOD OF RURAL DWELLERS IN THE SOUTH-WESTERN ZONE OF EKITI STATE, NIGERIA
MODUPE JANET AYENI
Abstract
The study examined the impact of Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) in the livelihood of the rural dwellers in the southern zone of Ekiti State, Nigeria. Three villages from within the vicinities of each of the three major towns in Ekiti South West Local Government area were randomly selected for this study. Fifty households in each village were randomly selected making a total of 450 households sampled in the study. Primary data were collected through semi structured questionnaire matrix administered to the head of each selected household. The results obtained revealed that the respondents were diverse and cut across the socio-economic classifications. These classifications were not pre-requisites to their consciousness on NTFPs. Eight important NTFPs were identified in the study area and valued for foods, soup or soup ingredients or spices or condiments, medicine, fuel wood, weaving, wrapping and sweeteners. A tripartite mode of NTFPs utilization was established in this study. While 14% of the respondents claimed exclusive consumption of the products, 7% claimed exclusive use of the products as sources of income while a vast majority of the respondents used the products for both subsistence and economics as sources of income. Three levels of respondents’ involvements were observed for NTFPs in the study area. These included collections, processing and marketing, each of which was dominated by females. Though the amount of income generated by considerable proportion of the respondents in this study is low compared to the national minimum wage yet serve as safety net for the poor and offer opportunity for employment. Diverse sources, including household area, household farms free area, and forest, abound for NTFPs species in the study area. Most of the species domiciled in the household farms were cultivated while those of free areas and forest were mostly wildlings. Constraints abound on transportation, storage and spoilage that greatly affect the contributions of the NTFPs in the study area, sustainable strategies that could ameliorate these problems and further boost the contributions of NTFPs were proposed.
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