Abstract

Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are essential components of rural household livelihood strategies and contribute immensely to household nutrition and health. This paper therefore, evaluated household consumption for selected NTFPs in Oyo State. A total of 240 respondents were interviewed with the aid of well-structured questionnaire and interview guide. Data were analysed using the Quadratic Almost Ideal System (QUAIDS) model. Results showed that the own price elasticities for all the NTFPs captured in this study were all negative in accordance to a priori expectation. The uncompensated elasticity showed that fat, fruit and vegetable were complement while animal, condiment and herb were substitute. The compensated elasticity revealed that complementarity was detected between the fruit -fat, condiment – vegetable and vegetable – fat pairs, while substitution appeared in fruit – animal, fruit – condiment, fruit – herb, and fruit – vegetable. The expenditure elasticity has the predicted sign for all the food items captured in the study. These were fruit, fat, vegetables, herbs, animal and condiment. The expenditure elasticities for fruit, fat, herb and vegetable were less than one, implying that they were necessity foods while animal and condiments were luxuries because their expenditure elasticities were greater than one. The budget share showed that the largest percentage of the respondents’ total expenditure was on animal products.

Key Words: Compensated elasticity, NTFPs, Cross price, Expenditure, QUAIDS