ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION OF AFRICAN LOCUST BEAN SEEDS (parkiabiglobosa) TO THE LIVELIHOOD OF RURAL INHABITANTS OF SOUTHERN TARABA STATE, NIGERIA

David Irande

Department of Forestry,

College of Agriculture, Jalingo.

Email: ametidauda@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The study was designed to assess the economic contribution of African locust bean seeds to the livelihood of rural inhabitants of Southern Taraba State, Nigeria.  Simple random sampling was used to select the three Local Government Areas from the eight L. G. A. in Southern Taraba State, with one L G A from each of the three vegetation type. The study revealed that the tree species play very important role in the live of the rural dwellers in the provision of food, medicine, income generation, timber for housing, fuel wood for cooking, and charcoal making, ritual purposes etc. One hundred and eighty questionnaires (180) were distributed randomly to sample the opinion of the people in the study area. The data collected were analyzed using simple descriptive statistics including table and percentages, budgetary analysis technique e.g. gross margin to analyze the profitability of locust bean processing and marketing in the study area. Regression analysis was also used to determine the relationship between the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents and the net revenue. The result of the budgeting analysis revealed that the total annual income generated from the locust bean business by the respondents, was N1,848,274and average net income obtained by individual respondent was N11,847.91 The result of the regression analysis revealed that there exist a significant relationship between the socio-economic characteristics (age, family size, cost of transportation, cost of labour, education level, years of experience and quantity processed) and the net revenue at (P > 0.05). It is therefore concluded that profit made by the processor and the marketer can be improved by increasing the quantity of locust bean seeds processed through the adoption of improve method of processing, preservation, packaging and marketing the product to international standard by reducing the odour of the product without loss of essential nutrients and palability in order to generate foreign exchange. Also rules and regulation against indiscriminate cutting of the tree species for alternative uses should be enforced to maximize their value.

Keywords: Economic Contribution, African Locust Bean Seed