Socio-Economic Contributions and Marketing of Garcinia Kola (Bitter Kola) in Ijebuode, Ogun State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examined the socio-economic contribution and marketing of Garcinia kola to human livelihoods in Ijebu-ode Ogun State. Simple random sampling was used to select 100 respondents from the study area and questionnaires were distributed to the selected respondents. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents while Gini coefficient and cost and return analysis were used to analyze the market structure and profitability. The result showed that 95% of the respondents were females, 35-45 age category have the highest percentage (48%). The finding revealed that the Islamic religion pre-dominate the study area. Acquisition of occupational  skill by majority (64%) was through apprenticeship i.e. learning. Price fluctuation was the major challenge (78%) faced by the respondents. The valuation and utilization of the bark of Garcinia kola for treatment of malaria has highest (84%)  percentage while the seed was used by majority (60%) to cure cough. The study showed the average profitability of all the markets, New market has the highest gross profit (N8,500) while Oke-aje market has the lowest gross profit (N3,293.75).  Computation of Gini-coefficient (G) helped to reveal the structure of the market. The result, G= 0.4708 indicates the oligopolistic nature of the market, which means the study areas were characterized by few sellers. Majority (90%) of the  respondents revealed that trading in bitter kola is profitable than trading in other non-timber forest products. Based on this findings, it was recommended that bitter kola marketers in the study areas should endeavor to form a co-operative and also, banking industry in Ogun State Nigeria should be made to consider in giving out loans to the bitter kola traders to enable them to go on mass trading of the products since price fluctuation was the most severe constraint to bitter kola marketing in the study area.