Abstract
Accepted 2nd July, 2016.
This study examined the analysis of bush meat trade in Emure-Ile, Owo, Ondo State, Nigeria while it specifically identified the socio economic characteristics of games’ marketers, market structure of games in the study area, determined the profitability of games’ marketing as well as the effects of bush meat trade and the sustainable management of the business. The data used in the study were collected from 80 bush meat marketers that were purposively selected with the aid of snowball sampling. The Descriptive Statistics Analysis, Gross Margin Analysis and Herfindahl Index (HI) were used to analyse the data. The study revealed that majority (93.7%) of the respondents get their game catches during the dry seasons and 56% of the respondents sell their game catches according to weights. The HI value of 0.024 indicated that there was low market concentration of bush meat in the study area. On the cost and returns of bush meat (profitability measures), it was gathered that the mean total revenue for all the hunters was ₦27, 362.50 (US$144.01) while the mean total variable cost was ₦6,150 ($32.37), implying that bush meat trade is profitable and less capital intensive in the study area. The study reported a very high rate of 82.5% awareness in the declining population of wild animals and suggested the prevention of deforestation and encouraging domestication of Wildlife as measures towards the sustainable management of the trade.
Key words: Games’ marketing, management practices, gross margin, herfindahl index