# Introduction uel wood is a wood and pulp material obtained from the trunks, branches and other parts of trees and shrubs which is used for cooking, heating or generating of energy through direct combustion (De Montabembert & Clement, 1983). Fuel wood is needed for light, heat as well for cooking and access to this resource can help improve the health and education of households by improving air pollution quality and allowing light to study at night (Heltberg, 2005). Most people both in urban and rural areas; earn their income from the wood fuel business which involve growing, harvesting, processing, trading, transporting or retailing (FAO-Regional Energy Development Programme, 1999). Most women go into full time harvesting of fuel wood and to others; it is a source of extra income or even a survival strategy in times of hardship (FAO, 1999). Fuel wood is used not only for cooking by most rural women but also in the production and baking of bread by local bread producers. Fuel wood is the predominant source of energy in rural and sub-urban areas as a result of its low cost and also because it serves as a means of livelihood for individuals who engage in the business. According to Ebe (2014) fuel wood rate of consumption in Africa rose by 23.08% from 154 million to 190.2 million metric tons in 1975 and about 95% consumed in Nigeria. Wood energy is the most important source of bio-energy in the world, providing 9% of the global primary energy supply (FAO, 2010). According to Maconachie, Tanko, and Zakariya. (2009) over dependence of wood energy by most people is as a result of several factors such as population increase, poverty as well as inconsistency in the supply of fossils fuels. Increased poverty has frequently been reported in both developed and undeveloped countries as one of the major driving forces for the increase rate of fuel wood consumption. According to Goldthau, & Witte (2010) fuel wood still accounts for up to 80% of Nigeria energy consumption due to poor access to modern energy sources. It has been estimated that the number of people using fuel wood will rise by more than 40% between 2000 and 2030 to about 70 million making, forest resources becomes most endangered natural resources. Nigeria is losing about 351, 000 Km2 to the desert representing 38% of its total landmass. The strives for survival coupled with geometric population growth worsened by extreme poverty in most of the developing countries as well as the quest for more comfort are the major causes of natural resources depletion the world over. Regional analysis of the use of wood as a major source of energy requirements indicates that in Eastern, Western and Southern Africa, more than 90 percent of rural households depend on fuelwood and charcoal (Adeniyi, and Felix 2011). One of the environmental resources which have been overexploited in Nigeria without adequate replacement is forest resources, especially wood products (Audu, 2013). Fuelwood consumption is estimated at about 80 million cubic meters (about 25 million tonnes) and this traditional energy source accounts for about 55 percent of Nigeria's primary energy requirements (Friends of the Environment, 2005). The rate of deforestation as a result of fuel wood consumption is about 350,000 hectares/year, which is equivalent to 3.6% of the present area of the forests and wood land, whereas, reforestation is only 10% of deforestation rate (ICCDD, 2000). It is obvious that the use of fuel wood by bread producers has its social, economic as well as environmental consequences. So, there is need to establish the socio-economic determinants of fuel wood usage by bread producers in Owerri North local Government Area of Imo state, Nigeria. i. detetermine the socio-economic characteristics of bread producers in the study area. ii. determine the socio-economic factors that influence the output by bread producers in the study area. iii. determine the source of domestic energy used by the bread producers in the study area. iv. identify the constraints faced by the bread producers in the study area. II. # Materials and Methods # a) Area of Study This study was carried out in Owerri North Local Government area of Imo state with its headquarters are in the town of Orie Uratta. It has an area of 198 square km and a population of 175,395 at the 2006 census. It is a semi-urban government area and encircles Owerri Municipal like a peninsular. There are six major roads that lead out of the municipal and it cuts across Owerri North Communities. It is comprised of seven towns/ districts which are: Egbu, Emekuku, Emii, Ihite-Ogada, Naze, Obibi-Uratta, and Orji. Their major occupation is predominantly farming. Imo state lies in the South East of Nigeria with Owerri as its capital and largest city occupying the area between the lower River Niger and the upper and middle Imo River. It lies within latitudes 4°45'N and 7°15'N, and longitude 6°50'E and 7°25'E with an area of around 5,100 sq km. There are 26 local governments in Imo state. It is rich with natural resources such as: crude oil, natural gas, lead, white clay, fine sand, limestone, as well as zinc. The economy of the Imo State depends primarily on agriculture and commerce. Their cash crops include oil palm, raffia palm, rice, groundnut, melon, cotton, cocoa, rubber, maize, etc. food crops such as yam, cassava, cocoyam and maize are also produced in large quantities. # III. # Results and Discussion # a) Socio-economic characteristics of the bread producers in the study area The socio-economic characteristics of the bread producers in Owerri North Local Government area of Imo State presented in the table 1 below revealed that, majority (84%) were males who dominates in the industry than females due to drudgery nature of bread production. However (50%) are within the age range of 41-50 years, while their mean age is 48 years, indicating activeness in age. Majority (90%) are married and (54%) had tertiary education signifying innovativeness as education influences individuals and household's rate of adoption of new and improved technology as well as choice of food commodities Fapojuwo (2010).Household size shows that (58%) have 4-6 persons and the average household size was 5 persons implying that respondents had a medium household size. Respondents had an average experience of 17 years implying that most of the bakeries are usually family owned. The bakery capacity is within 16-20bags, implying adequate use of flour for production which results to good quality product. Majority sampled have an income level of ?2,000,000 annually and an average income of ?1,570,020. This implies that small and medium scale bread enterprise is a viable venture being located mostly in the rural part of the study area. From the table 2, below majority 68% use fuel wood energy for production in the study area. This finding is in consonance with Adeniyi and Felix (2011) who stated that small scale enterprises in the informal sector, being essentially profit oriented, tend to use the cheapest and most reliable fuels (fuelwood), due to the periodic and chronic shortages of commercial fuels such as gas and kerosene experienced in the country from time to time. The table also asserts that only 12% producers make use of electric oven for their production. It was further revealed that electricity is also used by the producers alongside fuel wood in the study area. This implies that most of the bread producers in the area do not depends on one energy source. It should be noted that the usage of these two energy sources depends on the economic status of the producers. Also, other sources of energy are rarely used in the study area. This is in line with the findings of Schalag and Zuzarte (2008) who revealed that most rural areas predominantly utilize fuel wood energy. Asfuel wood constitutes a major source of domestic energy for production by the bread producers it therefore poses a major threat to forest resources which invariably lead to deforestation as noted by Energy Commission of Nigeria (2003) who accentuated that fuel wood supply/demand imbalance in some parts of the country is now a real threat to the energy security of the rural communities. Their findings conform to the findings of Ikurekong et al. (2009) that exploitation of fuel wood is intensified by inaccessibility ofother energy sources. Source: Field data survey, 2017 c) Sources of Fuel wood in the study area Table 3 below shows the sources of energy used by the bread producers in the study area. In the table3 below, majority of the producers (62%) source their fuelwood on contract basis from suppliers who engages infuel wood collection as a source of livelihood activities, while 22% source from the open market and this agrees with the findings of FAO Regional Energy Development Programme (1999) who reported that, most people both in urban and rural areas; earn their income from the wood fuel business which involves growing, harvesting, processing, trading, transporting or retailing. # d) Effects of respondents socio-economic factors on their output in the study area Table4: shows the socio-economic factors that influence the output of the bread producers in the study area. The F-ratio for each functional form is significant at 1% and this imply that each of the functional form can be used for further analysis and are adequate. The model chosen was not only based on the strength of the R-squared but rather on the considerations of the signs of the coefficients with respect to economic theory, lowness of the Akaike information criterion or Schwarz criterion (Greene, 2008;Gujarati, 2006). Therefore the lead equation chosen is the double log model based its F-ratio, R 2 , and the low Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) value of -2.711736 which was significant at 1% and a better criterion for a non-tested model. From the table 4,below educational level and bakery experience were significant at 1% and this conforms to the a priori expectations because it believed that education improves one's knowledge and according to Fapojuwo (2010), it influences the level of adoption of improved technology which invariably should have a positive effect on the output of the bread producers. It also implies that the more years a producer spend in attaining formal education, the more the increase in their output and this conforms to the findings of Onoja and Emodi (2012) who reported that education has the power of giving trader an edge over their counterpart as their level of awareness of the use of efficient technology and market information will enhance their output thereby increasing their productive capacities. Bakery experience was significant and had a positive coefficient which implies that a unit increase in the experience of the bread producers will cause an increase in the income level of the bakers. The R 2 of 73.86% implies that explanatory variables of the double logged model were able to explain 73.86% of the output of bread produced in the study area. 5, below shows the various constraints encountered by the bread producers in the study area. High cost of raw materials was identified as the major constraints affecting their production followed by price fluctuation, government policy and high cost of petroleum and diesel products. This result implies that the bread producer experienced increasing cost of raw materials for production ranging from flour to the least material needed for production. According to them, there have been a sharp increase of price of raw materials causing an increase in the cost of production which invariably will affect the price of bread and causes reduction in the purchase of the commodity because consumers will not be willing to purchase bread at a higher price which invariably will have an effect on their income level and this conforms to the law of demand which states that the higher the price, the lower the quantity demanded ceteris paribus. They also lamented that on the substandard quality of the raw materials, which in turn , resulted to low output. Government policy is also seen as a major constraint and this arises from the payment of several fees ranging from tax, emblem, union among others. This also has an effect on their output as, according to them, they do not receive incentives from government but are mandated to pay huge sum of money monthly. They also suffer from various health issues associated with the usage of fuelwood which results from the inhalation of the smoke arising from the incomplete combustion of the fuelwood and this might lead to respiratory disease, cancer, among others and this is in consonance with the report by the WHO (2006) which stated that cooking with fuelwood is a major source of global ill health. According to respondents sampled, there has been an increasing rate of cost of raw materials ranging from flour to the least material needed for production. Also, they lamented that roadsnetworks affect their distribution which hinders their supply chain. Excessive rainfall affects the rising of yeast negatively as it requires heat. # e) Estimated Socio-economic factors that influence the output of the bread producers in the study area # Variables # Conclusion It can be deduced that years of schooling and bakery experience are significant at 1% in influencing the output of bread produced in the study area. There was an over dependence of fuel wood energy by producers as compared to other energy sources due to erratic power supply. The major challenge is high cost of raw materials and government should endeavor to create conducive environment for producers in the study area. 1Socio-Economic Determinants of Fuelwood usage by Bread Producers in Owerri North Local GovernmentArea of Imo State, Nigeriaa) Specific Objectives of this study are toYear 201742Volume XVII Issue V Version IE )(Global Journal of Human Social Science -Sex AgeItems Male Female 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 Above 60Frequency 42 18 03 06 25 10 06Percentage 84 16 06 12 50 20 12Mean 48Marital StatusMarried4590Single0510Educational LevelPrimarySecondary0510Tertiary1836142754Household size1-31020b) Sources of Energy used by Bread Producers in the study areaTable2, below shows the various energy sources used by bread producers in the study area. 2ItemsFrequencyPercentageFuelwood3468Electric Oven0612Both Fuelwood and1020ElectricityTotal50100 3FrequencyPercentageIndividual0816Contract3162Open Market1122Total50100 5ConstraintsFrequencyPercentageHigh cost of raw50100materials4590Price fluctuations4284Government policy4080High cost of petroleum3876and diesel products3672Power fluctuationInadequate financeHealth issues3570High cost of labour3060Highcostof2550transportationInadequate fuelwood2244Environmental2244regulationWeather problem2244Source: Field data survey, 2017. Multiple responses recordedIV. © 2017 Global Journals Inc. (US) Year 2017 Socio-Economic Determinants of Fuelwood usage by Bread Producers in Owerri North Local Government Area of Imo State, Nigeria ## Acknowledgments The authors are indeed very grateful to bread producers association in Owerri North local Government Area of Imo State, for their cooperation and permission that facilitated data collection for this study. * Socio-Economic Aspects of Fuel Wood Business in the Forest and Savanna Zones of Nigeria: Implications for Forest Sustainability and Adaptation to Climate Change GAdeniyi OFelix Global Journal of Human Social Science 11 1 2011 * Fuelwood consumption and desertification BEAudu International Journal of Science and Technology 2224-3577 3 1 2013 * MRDe Montalembert JClément 1983 * Fuelwood Supplies in the Developing Countries Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome * Socio-Economic Factors Influencing the Use of Fuelwood in Urban Areas of Enugu State FEEbe Nigeria. Journal of Business and Management 16 11 2014 * Albanian Jornal of Agricultural Science 12 1 * National energy policy Energy Commission of Nigeria 2003 * Influence of socio-economic characteristics on use of moderm cassava processing technology among women processors in Ogun state, Nigeria. College of Agricultural management and rural development, university of Agriculture OEFapojuwo 2010 Abeokuta Nigeria * Tree planting practice in African Savanna forestry paper FAO Rome 1999 Food and Agricultural Organization of United Nation, FAO * Global Forest Resources Assessment 2010-Forestry Paper 2010. 2010 Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome, Italy * Enabling Urban Poor Livelihood Policy Making: Understanding the Role of Energy Services Country Study Report Nigeria Prepared for Twente Centre for Studies in Technology and Sustainable Development Netherlands 2005 University of Twente * Global energy governance: The new rules of the game AGoldthau Witte J. M. 2010 Brookings Institution Press * Essentials of econometrics DNGujarati 2006 Boston, Toronto & New Delhi 3rd edition * Factors determining households' fuel choice in Guatemala. Environmental and Development Economics RHeltberg 2005 10 * Rural Fuelwood Exploitation in Mbo Local Government Area : A Coastal Settlement EEIkurekong JOEsin ACMba Ethiopian Journal of Environmental Studies and Management 2 3 2009 * Inter-Ministerial Committee on Combating Deforestation and Desertification (ICCDD) August 2000 Report of * Descending the energy ladder? Oil price shocks and domestic fuel choices in Kano RMaconachie ATanko MZakariya Nigeria. Land Use Policy 26 4 2009 * Economic analysis of fuelwood production and consumption: Evidence from Nigerian state AOOnoja A&emodi British journal of management and economic 2 1 2012 * Market barrier to clean cooking fuels in sub Saharan Africa. A review of literature, working paper, Stockholm Environment Institute. World Health Organization NSchalag FZuzarte Fuel for life. Households Energy and Health Geneva WHO 2008. 2006