Assessment ofcommercial importance and determinant factors influencing collection of non timber forest products in adjoining communities of lanlate Forest Reserve of Oyo State, Nigeria

The study focused on the assessment of commercial importance and determinant factors influencing collection of non timber forest products in  adjoining communities of Lanlate. Purposive sampling was used to select four villages Alapa, Opo Ogede, Afayasoro, and Panlati which are closed to  the forest reserve with protected population of 640,290,540 and250 respectively. Furthermore Diaw et,al (2002)was used to select respondent for the study,113 questionnaire were administered out of which 106 were retrieved..Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as percentage and frequency distribution and inferential statistics. Majority of the respondents were within the age brackets of 42-60 years (30.2%) and mostly male (81.1%); 62.3% of the respondents had secondary education. Results further showed that81.2% of the respondents were married, 57.5% were engaged in farming as occupations and 53.8% had spent 10-20 years in the area. Non Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) collected in the area were34.9% of bush-meats, (45.3%) collected NTFPs between 3 - 5 days in a week and some of challenges faced were unattractive price, poor road network and inadequate credit accessibility. The study recommended that government should encourage development of participative programme involving local people for the evaluation of NTFPs resources for sustainable production, harvesting and use of NTFPs. Keywords: Assessment, Communities, Factors, Forest Reserve, NTFPs, Respondents

Effect of poultry manure and cow dung on the growth of Entandrophragma Angolense (WELW) C.DC

This study examined the effect of poultry manure and cow dung on the growth of Entandrophragma angolense. The experiment was carried out at Federal College of Forestry, Ibadan. The experiment lasted for 12 weeks. Three weeks old seedlings at two-leaf stage were transplanted into  polythene pots thoroughly mixed with varying levels of poultry manure and cow dung manure with 2 kg of top soil in each pot. Plants in control experiment had no treatment of organic fertilizer. The experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with seven treatments  which were replicated three times. Plant height, number of leaves, stem girth, and leaf area were assessed weekly. The result obtained from the study shows that the seedlings treated with 10 g of cow dung performed best in all the parameters assessed with 11.73 cm for stem height, 30.58 cm2 for leaf area, 0.29 mm for stem girth and 6 for number of leaves produced and this is followed by seedlings treated with 10 g of poultry  dropping which had 11.52 cm for stem height, 26.48 cm2 for leaf area, 0.27 mm as stem girth and 5 leaves produced during the course of the study. It is thus concluded that cow dung is best used as organic manure for raising seedlings of Entandrophragma angolense during its early growth stage in the nursery. Keywords: Entandrophragma angolense, poultry manure, cow-dung, growth rate, mahogan