Contribution of fuelwood marketing to sustainable livelihood in Oyo state

Fuel wood is an important source of income and domestic energy for both rural and urban households in Nigeria. The marketing of fuel wood in Ibadan, Oyo state, Nigeria was investigated with a view to assess the profitability and contribution of fuelwood marketing to sustainable livelihood in Oyo state. Data for the study were obtained from a total of 50 randomly selected respondents through interview schedules, structured questionnaires applications and personal observation. Descriptive statistical tools such as frequency, percentages and tables were used to analyze variables of interest such as age, gender, marital status, education, tribe, experience and type of institution. Profitability analysis was used to examine the profitability of the enterprise. The results revealed that majority (86%) of the marketers were females, 44% had only primary education while 36% had 11 to 20 years of the business experience. The Profitability analysis revealed that an average marketer incurred an average of total variable cost of 31,731.82 naira per month but earned average revenue of 38,290.00 naira which indicated that an average marketer earns 6,558.18 naira as gross margin per month. This thus indicated that fuel wood marketing is profitable. Transportation, season and government policy are the major marketing constraints of fuel wood. It is therefore recommended that government should provide good transportation incentives such as good road networks that will reduce the transaction costs and make transportation easy for fuel wood marketers.