Utilization pattern of Vitex donania in uromi, Esan North-East local Government area of Edo State, Nigeria

The utilization pattern of Vitex doniana a non-timber forest product (NTFP) was examined in Uromi, Esan North East Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria. Data was collected from one hundred (100) respondents in households using interview and questionnaire survey. Descriptive statistics, t-test and Pearson chi-square were used to analyse data collected. The result showed that V. doniana is well known as an important NTFP in the area since majority of the respondents (97.8%) are aware of the tree species as a result of the high rate of consumption (88.6%). It was observed that some respondents (77.8%) do not consume it because of their ignorance about it, while few (22.2%) was because of the color. The result also shows that, (48.8%) of the respondents consume it as food while 16.3% and 35% consume it for the purpose of ethno medicine and food combined with ethno medicine respectively. This result also reveals that fruit is the major part consumed for food (89.4%) and ethno medicine (46.3%). It is a widely accepted fruit tree species in the study area, based on the fact that about 95.6% agreed that it is widely accepted and its consumption trend is on the increase (88.3%) which shows that the people like it. On the other hand, many people (37.5%) cannot access it due to its threatened conservation status as it is no longer cultivated in the forest as before as well as its lack of NAFDAC number. However, the result of the chi-square shows that there is no significant difference (p>0.05) in the consumption of this species among the various primary occupation categories and also, that the consumption rate does not significantly (p>0.05) depend on the educational status. Chi-square also shows that, there is no significant (p>0.05) difference in their consumption. Consumption of V. doniana significantly (p<0.05) depends on household size and consumption does not depend significantly (p>0.05) on the economic status. Therefore appropriate recommendations capable for the sustainability of the species were given.