Timber is one of many forest products usually obtained from trees that have been sawn into logs of wood made ready for use in construction of bridges, buildings and carpentry. Some commonly demanded timber species of trees are not readily available in Plateau State, Nigeria. Sometimes, the cost of some highly desired timber species is not within affordable range for some users, which often leads to choice of alternative species, which are often brought from other states of Nigerian federation outside the Plateau State. Some timber species found in the timber markets of Plateau State at the time of this study are
Ajewole et al. (2016) considered 27 sawn wood species in the capital city of Oyo State in Nigeria, and results from their study showed
Awe et al. (2019) studied availability of timber species among timber traders in selected markets using structured questionnaires in Kogi State located in the north-central part of Nigeria. Their research showed that
While investigating accessibility of timber species in some timber markets of Oyo State, Famuyide et al. (2012) discovered that
Motivation to embark on this research centres on investigating timber species mostly demanded by consumers of wood products in markets of one of the north-central states of Nigeria. This includes determination of sales and cost per timber species of mostly demanded timber in two main timber markets of Plateau State, Nigeria. It also involves a model of monthly sales of timber species, which had not been previously found in literature for the study area.
In this study, we aim to determine sales, costs and demands for timber species in selected timber markets of Plateau State, Nigeria. The specific objectives of this study are to determine mostly demanded timber species by consumers of wood products, cost per timber species and dependence of timber sales on factors influencing it. The remaining part of this study is organised as follows: section 2 is materials and methods, section 3 is results and discussion and section 4 concludes.
Plateau State is situated in the north-central geopolitical zone of Nigeria on coordinates 9°34′N and 9°04′E. This study focused on Plateau Timber Market Katako and Railway Timber Market in Plateau State. The timber market in Katako is divided mainly into two sections: the first section is called timber A and the second section of Katako market is known as timber B. The market first existed in the area called Kwararafa in Jos city of Plateau State. Majority of the traders in the market stated that some timbers were from forests within Plateau State and others from some neighbouring states. However, some of the traders acknowledged that their wood products were from the southern part of Nigeria. The Railway Timber Market was founded in 1952 under Nigeria Railway Corporation in Jos, Plateau State. It is located close to British and American roads in proximity to Murtala Muhammad road in Jos.
This study is designed to measure the effect of factors affecting timber sales in some timber markets of Plateau State. The response of timber sales to factors affecting it is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 shows the design framework for this study which investigates the impact of cost per timber species, demand for timber by consumers of wood products, stored timber and spoiled timber species on timber sales of sawn woods in some timber markets of Plateau State.
Data for this study were collected from 400 respondents. Structured questionnaires were administered to timber traders in Plateau Timber Market Katako and Railway Timber Market in Plateau State. Purposive sampling technique was adopted in the choice of the market, and simple random sampling technique was used for administration of the questionnaires to timber traders.
Descriptive statistics, F-test statistics,
Let
For the four independent variables, equation (1) gives MLR analyses for
The pairwise use of Pearson product moment correlation (PPMC) is given by the equation
The timber demanded by species and the number of pieces of sawn wood demanded are shown in Table 1 based on data obtained from 400 respondents in selected timber markets of Plateau State.
Demand for timber species by pieces demanded monthly in selected timber markets of Plateau State
Timber species | 1–100 pieces | 101–200 pieces | 201–300 pieces | 301–400 pieces | 401–500 pieces | Above 500 pieces | Total | % demands from consumers |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
35 | 52 | 43 | 7 | 13 | 29 | 179 | 44.8 | |
12 | 24 | 15 | 10 | 0 | 9 | 70 | 17.5 | |
3 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 12 | 3.0 | |
5 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 24 | 6.0 | |
0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1.0 | |
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 1.5 | |
0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0.5 | |
0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.3 | |
Others | 5 | 14 | 37 | 11 | 3 | 32 | 102 | 25.5 |
Total | 62 | 105 | 102 | 29 | 19 | 83 | 400 | 100.0 |
Using descriptive statistics as shown in Table 1, about 44.8% of the timber traders reported mahogany as the mostly demanded timber species in Plateau Timber Market, Katako and Railway Timber Market in Plateau State. Timber species categorised as ‘Others’ constitute about 25.5% of timber species demanded monthly in selected markets of Plateau State. However, timber species classified as ‘Others’ in this study included
It can be seen in Figure 2 that sawn wood with cost per timber in the price range of N 1001–N 1500 (US dollar $2.42–$3.63) at the exchange rate of 1dollar = 413.83 Nigerian Naira is more readily available for sale in the surveyed timber markets of Plateau State. There are exceptions such as oak, walnut and cedar, which are not so common in the markets. However, sawn wood from iroko timber species has a higher price range than other timber species and it is in the price range of N 1501–N 2000 (US $3.63–$4.83) at the exchange rate of 1dollar = 413.83 Nigerian Naira.
The results presented in Table 2 show PPMC of cost per timber species, demand for timber by consumers of wood products, quantity of timber stored and quantity of timber spoiled with timber sales.
Pairwise PPMC of cost per timber, demand, quantity of timber stored and quantity spoiled with timber sales in selected timber markets of Plateau State
PPMC | Cost per timber | Demand for timber | Stored timber species | Spoiled timber species |
---|---|---|---|---|
Timber sales | 0.381 | 0.634 | 0.592 | 0.265 |
A positive correlation was obtained in a pairwise comparison of timber sales with cost per timber species, demand by consumers for wood products, stored quantity and spoiled quantity of timber species. This suggests that there exists some degree of pairwise relationships between timber sales and other factors such as cost, demand, stored quantity and spoiled quantity. Demand for timber species by consumers with PPMC value of 0.634 indicated a factor with strongest strength among the factors correlated with timber sales in Plateau Timber Market, Katako and Railway Timber market in Plateau State.
About 50.5% variation occurs in timber sales in response to the factors affecting it, as shown in Table 3.
Response of timber sales to demand, cost, stored quantity and spoiled quantity of timber in selected timber markets of Plateau State
Modela | R | Adjusted |
Std error of the estimate | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 0.710b | 0.505 | 0.500 | 1.237 |
dependent variable: timber sales (monthly);
predictor: (constant), cost per timber, demand for timber, stored timber and spoiled timber species.
To investigate the possibility of
F-test statistics for timber sales and associated variables at α = 5% level of significance
Modela | Sum of squares | df | Mean square | F | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Regression | 612.182 | 4 | 153.045 | 100.072 | 0.000(b)++ |
Residual | 601.037 | 393 | 1.529 | ||
Total | 1213.219 | 397 |
dependent variable: timber sales (monthly);
predictor: (constant), cost per timber, demand for timber, stored timber and spoiled timber species.
Results presented in Table 4 with
Modela | B | Std error | Beta | t | Lower bound | Upper bound | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(constant) | 0.346 | 0.193 | 1.788 | 0.074 ++ | 0.034 | 0.725 | |
Cost per timber | 0.160 | 0.055 | 0.114 | 2.898 | 0.004++ | 0.051 | 0.268 |
Demand for timber | 0.413 | 0.044 | 0.407 | 9.322 | 0.000++ | 0.326 | 0.500 |
Stored timber | 0.287 | 0.042 | 0.307 | 6.895 | 0.000++ | 0.205 | 0.369 |
Spoiledtimber | 0.087 | 0.040 | 0.081 | 2.177 | 0.030++ | 0.008 | 0.165 |
dependent variable: timber sales (monthly);
significant at α = 5% level of significance.
Results presented in Table 5 as obtained by
To determine the dependence of timber sales on cost per timber, demand for timber species by consumers of wood products, quantity of timber stored and quantity of spoiled timber, this study used MLR model. While the MLR model considered the constant of the relationship, cost per timber species, demand for timber species by consumers of wood products, quantity of timber stored and quantity of timber spoiled as independent variables, the dependent variable was timber sales of sawn wood. Hence, using Table 5 with the aid of equation (2) gives the following MLR model equation:
The dependent variable Y represents the timber sales and
Figure 3 shows the timber sales of sawn wood by available timber species in selected markets of Plateau State. It shows that
While this study is in agreement with the research of Francis et al. (2017) and Chaskda et al. (2021) that forests of Plateau State are highly exploited leading to devastating effects on the ecosystem, there are differences in the type of wood exploited for different purposes. If over-exploitation of forests is not controlled in Plateau State, more forests will disappear in future. Although there are forest areas such as Amurum Forest Reserve (Abiem et al. 2017; Agaldo 2019), Jos Wildlife Park (Chaskda 2017) and Pandam Game Reserve (Turshak et al. 2021), among others, which are reserved in Plateau State, Nigeria, there are others such as Shere Hills (Francis et al. 2017) which should also be conserved to increase the number and types of different timber species. There is a need to create more reserved forests to protect endangered species of trees that may be cut down for sales in the markets of Plateau State, as such reservation of forests can help to reduce unhealthy anthropogenic activities which include logging, grazing, hunting, bush burning, collection of fuel wood and non-timber products.
Results of over-exploitation of forests are obvious as discussed in the study by Sambe et al. (2022). Their study pointed out that limited wood supply was the biggest challenge to furniture production in Plateau State. This study also agreed with the study of Sambe et al. (2022) that
In this research, analysis of the effect of cost per timber species, demand for timber species by consumers of wood products, quantity of stored timber and quantity of spoiled timber species on timber sales of sawn wood in selected markets of Plateau State was carried out. It was found from the study that
Analysis of data using PPMC indicated positive correlation when pairwise comparison was made for timber sales with other variables. Further analysis using other statistical tools confirmed prediction of timber sales from the effects of factors such as costs, demands by consumers for wood products, stored quantity and spoiled quantity of timber species in the surveyed markets of Plateau State. However, future upward surge in timber sales may be experienced when demand for timber species by consumers of wood products soars higher, which may put pressure on existing forest trees. Further studies on forest stands around the surveyed markets would be necessary to comprehensively get composition of forest trees in the regions around the markets. In this study, since