Marketing of fuelwood in Bida Local Government Area of Niger state, Nigeria

This research analyzed the marketing activities of fuelwood in Bida local government area, Niger State. A multi-stage sampling technique was used for the study. In the first stage, purposive sampling was used to select five districts (Banyagi, Nassarafu, Banwuya, Sabongida, and Bangaie), two markets from four districts and three markets from Banwuya, giving a total number of 11 markets. In the second stage, simple random sampling was used to select 20 respondents from each of the four districts and 40 respondents form Banwuya markets which gave a total sample size of 120 respondents. Structured questionnaire and oral interviews were used to generate data. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics and gross profit margin. The result obtained showed that, female (93.3%) are the major actors in the marketing of fuelwood; the average age of the respondents was between 31- 40 years (36.7%), married (67.5%) with household size of 11-15 members (30.8%). Majority had Quranic education (61.7%) and fuelwood business as their occupation (60.0%). Most marketers source their products from the forest (53.3%) and had weekly sale revenue of ₦89,250.00, total cost ₦46,450 and gross profit margin of ₦42,800 per week. However, the return on investment (ROI) showed that, fuelwood marketers incurred 47.96% from their business. Cost of labour and transportation are the major constraint of fuelwood marketers. From this study, fuelwood marketing is a profitable business and has become part and parcel of their daily domestic energy utilization. There is need to identify fast growing tree species that are suitable for burning and the planting of such species should be emphasized.