Abstract

This paper was designed to ascertain bamboo utilization and its contribution to livelihoods of people and to identify the various problems facing its utilization in Gboko Local Government area of Benue, Nigeria. Simple random sampling method was adopted to select fifteen (15) respondents from each of the selected wards. Also multi stage random sampling was adopted in the division of Gboko into two constituencies (Gboko-east and Gboko-west). The second stage involved random selection of four wards each from Gboko-east and Gboko-west constituencies, making a total of eight (8) wards. The third stage was random distribution of fifteen (15) questionnaires in each of the wards selected, bringing a total of one hundred and twenty (120) questionnaires for the research work. Data collected include socio-economic characteristics or respondents, sources of bamboo species, income from bamboo products, uses of bamboo, bamboo markets etc and all the questionnaires distributed were retrieved. Descriptive statistic such as tables, frequency, percentage, bar chart and pie chart were used to analyze data. The result from the study showed that, out of one hundred and twenty respondents, 60.8% (73) were males and 39.2% (47) were females. In terms of household size 18.3% (22) were between 1-3 house hold sizes, 39.2% (47) were between 4-6, 15.8%. The result from the research showed that, bamboo has contributed immensely to the livelihoods of respondents, thereby increasing their standard of living in so many ways such as fodder for animals, building construction, medicine for cough and asthma, furniture making, income generation, as well as fuel wood. Therefore, the study recommended that, the wise use of bamboo should be encouraged to avoid extinction of bamboo from the forest, since most of the respondents obtained bamboo from the wild. It is recommended that the State Department of forestry should include Bamboo as one of the plantation species due to its high demand in the area. Also government should establish bamboo research institute to enhance production of genetically superior bamboo species.