Socio-Economics and Marketing of Chewing Stick in Ogbomoso Metropolis of Oyo State, Nigeria

The study assessed trade in chewing stick in Ogbomoso metropolis of Oyo state with a view to identifying and describing the socio-economic characteristics of the chewing stick wholesalers and retailers, identifying and describing the channels of distribution, determiniming the cost and returns structure in chewing stick trade as well as identifying the major problems facing trade in chewing sticks. Purposive random sampling was employed for the selection of one hundred (100) marketers who were interviewed with semi-structured questionnaires to obtain data on their socio-demographic characteristics, years of experience in the business, costs and revenues. Data generated were analyzed using simple descriptive statistical techniques such as frequency distributions, percentages, cross tabulations, marketing margin and correlation analysis. The result shows that 38.2% of the chewing stick Marketers falls within age of 31-46years and 16-30 (35.3%) with females constituting as much as 60%. A greater part (80%) of the respondents was married, with majority (52%) of them having a household size of 1-5 persons. More than half (55.4%) of the respondents have primary school leaving certificates while 35.3% have secondary education. The Marketers have trading experience ranging between 1 to 5 years (52.9%), 6 to 10 years (35.55%) and 11 to 15 years (11.8%). The study concludes that chewing stick trade is a major means of livelihood in Ogbomoso metropolis, providing income for the sustenance of persons engaged in it and their dependants. As a Non-Timber Forest Product collected from the wild; urgent steps need to be taken for its domestication and cultivation to avoid untimely extinction of the source of livelihood of these respondents and their dependants.Keywords: Non-Timber Forest Products, Chewing stick, Marketing, Channels of distribution, Gender