Utilization of Forest Herbal Resources among Rural Farming Populace in Niger and Kogi States, Nigeria

Abstract

This study analysed forest herbal utilization among rural farming populace in Niger and Kogi State. Multistage sampling was used to select 326 of farming populace. The first stage involved selection of all the agricultural zones in both States. At the second stage, one (1) LGA from each agricultural zone was randomly selected. The third stage involved random selection of four communities from the selected LGAs. At the fourth stage, 10% of the farmers were randomly selected from the sampling frame of each communities. In all, a total of 326 respondents were selected as the sample size for the study. Data were collected from primary source using questionnaire complemented with interview schedule. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage and mean). The mean age of the respondents was 40 years while 80.7% of the respondents in the study area were married. It was found that the average of 4.7 years was spent on formal education. Further findings showed that 23.5% of the rural farming populace utilised trees shrub/leaves when fresh. While 23.0% of the rural farming families utilize tree shrubs/leaves when boiled. Moreover, 23.6% of the farming populace utilized skin herbal for their medicinal purposes such as cough, fever and charming while 14.1% of the rural farming populace utilized feather when dried for medicinal and domestic uses such as cure of paralysis and skin rashes. Wind blowing possess the most environmental hazard in the utilization of forest herbal resources (x 126 ̅ -2.44) while bush burning leads to animal going into extinction (x ̅ -2.42). It is therefore recommended that farmers should be trained and sensitized by the extension agents on how to safely explore forest resources in order to curb negative incidents while rural farming populace organize themselves into community self-help group for protection of forest against bush burning.