ABSTRACT

The study was conducted to assess the importance of selected indigenous forest fruit trees in Ikwuano Local Government Area, Abia state. The population for the study comprised of farmers, harvesters and marketers. A total of eight villages were selected for the study. In each village 15 questionnaires was distributed. In all, a total of 120 respondents constituted the sample size for the study. Majority (68.8%) of the respondents engaged in indigenous forest fruit tree production were males. Regarding marital status 89.2% of the farmers were married while 10.8% of them were single. Educational level of the farmers show that 90.8% of them in the study area are literate with diverse formal education ranging from primary, secondary to tertiary education. The indigenous forest fruit trees selected was found within the study with Chrysophyllum albiduni having the highest responses of 94.0%, this was followed by Garcinia kola (88.3%), Cola lepidopta (8 1.7%), Monodora myristica (61.7%), and Canarium schweinfiirthii (60.0%) respectively. Economic importance derived from utilization of these indigenous fruit trees showed mean values of some factors such as "Fruit sold in the market" (Mean = 3.49), "Income generated from sales" (Mean = 3.01), "Source of food for household" (Mean = 2.85) and "Fruit sold at home for money" (Mean =2.63). The constraint militating against the production of Indigenous Fruits in the study area were "Inadequate storage facility" with the highest mean (Mean = 3.58) this was followed by "Inadequate labour" (Mean = 3.13), "Long gestation period" (Mean = 2.95), "Stands felled for fuel wood" (Mean = 2.89), "Poor road network" (Mean = 2.79), "Unfavourable weather condition" (Mean 2.57) and "Poor fruit formation" (Mean = 2.53), while High cost of transportation and low pricing had no significant effect.