Abstract

This study assessed the Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) used as food and medicine by the urban dwellers of Oyo State, Nigeria. It identified the NTFPs, sources and perception about the effectiveness of utilization as medicine. Data were sourced on the basis of senatorial districts. The three senatorial districts are Oyo South, Oyo Central and Oyo North with a population size of 1,764,217, 1,906,814 and 1,909,863 respectively. Both random and proportionate sampling techniques were adopted with 217 questionnaires processed. Descriptive analysis such as frequency, percentage and histograms with Chi square were used to describe the socioeconomic variations and to assess the various utilizations of NTFPs. The Chi-square analysis showed that occupation (p = 0.001), educational status (p=0.002), income (p=0.013) and age (p=0.011) were statistically significant in determining how the respondents feel about the effectiveness of the use of NTFPs as medicine, but variables like gender (p=0.071) and religion (p=0.121) were not significant. Efforts should therefore be made by government and relevant research institutes to train the people on the domestication of these NTFPs to achieve sustainability, pharmaceutical involvement to make more refine and more awareness about NTFPs. Some of the reasons given by the respondents for using the NTFPs include cheapness, availability and accessibility and some of the sources where they obtain the NTFPs were given as market, hawkers, forest and friends.

Key words: Non-timber forest products, utilization, availability, accessibility, domestication.