Contribution of non-timber forest products to livelihoods of rural dwellers in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria

Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) are major source of livelihoods to the rural dwellers. It provides essential food and nutrition, medicine, fodder, thatch and construction materials, mulch and non-farm income for rural households. NTFPs has not been given due attention regardless of its contribution to the livelihoods improvements of the rural communities. The study examined the contribution of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) to the livelihoods of rural dwellers in Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State. Two-staged sampling techniques were used for the study. Four districts were selected purposively and random sampling was used to select 80 respondents from four communities within the selected districts. Data were collected with well structured questionnaires and presented with mean, percentage and frequency distribution while Likert Scale and Chisquare were used to analysed the data. The results showed that 41.25% of the respondents are famers, male (78.75%), age range between 31-40 years (38.75%), married (63.75%) with household size of 11-15 (47.50%) members, had primary school education (30.00%) and with experience of 11 to 15 years (48.75%) in the use of NTFPs. Sixteen different types of NTFPs were available, most commonly collected and most often used for food, medicine, cooking, construction and preservation. These NTFPs were mushrooms, fruits and nuts, vegetables, seeds, bushmeat, medicinal plants, snails, leaves, poles, firewood, ropes, pegs, stakes, honey, bamboo and locust beans. Most of the respondents obtained their NTFPs from the market, forest and farms. The average income obtained from NTFPs per respondent per month was N 32,250. It was observed NTFPs contributes significantly (X2 = 34.73) to the livelihoods of the respondents. The study concludes that the NTFPs generate income, serves as sources of food security, medicine, providing multiple social and cultural values thereby increasing the overall livelihoods of the rural dwellers in the study area.