Prospects and Challenges of Production and Marketing of Non-timber Forest Products (NTFPs) by Rural Farmers in Southwest Nigeria

The study assessed the prospects and challenges of producing and marketing of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) by rural households with the view to improving their socio-economic contributions to rural livelihoods. Data collection was conducted in Ondo State, Southwest Nigeria. The respondents that was sampled for the study comprise of farmers who produced NTFPs on their farms. Multistage sampling techniques was used to sample the targeted respondents. Three Local Government Areas (LGAs) were randomly selected in the State, while 2 villages were selected from each of the three LGAs making 6 study sites. Twenty respondents were sampled in each of the study sites making a total number of 120 respondents. Primary data was generated mainly from pre-tested structured questionnaires and field observations. Abouth 71.7% of the farmers operated on semi-commercial basis. The major cultivated food crop was cassava (55.3%) while cash crop was Cocoa (54.7%). All the farmers (100%) possessed multipurpose trees on their farmland and these were spared (100%) during land preparation. Many of the farmers got buyers for their NTFPs ( =57.1104, p=0.0000) 2 and the sale of the NTFPs has met their financial needs ( =5.9309, p=0.0149). Middlemen were the major 2 customers that the producers sold the NTFPs to ( =4.6749, p=0.0306). The major marketing problems 2 confronting the farmers of the NTFPs was significant ( =31.1767, p=0.0083) with lack of storage facility on top 2 follow by poor transportation, price fluctuation, middlemen low price and deforestation. There is therefore urgent assistance of the producers to embark on simple and easily-handled processing and packaging technologies to reduce wastage and add value to the products; necessary authorities should also embark on construction of rural roads within the study areas to facilitate marketing of the NTFPs thereby improving the rural livelihoods.