Contribution of Non-Timber Forest Products livelihood strategies to rural development in drylands of Sudan: Potentials and failures

In recent decades there has been growing interest in the contribution of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) livelihood strategies to rural development and poverty alleviation. However, the potential of NTFPs to contribute to development remained limited and open to doubt. The study objectives were to: (i) analyze the role of NTFPs livelihood strategies in rural development in order to explain their potentials and failures; and (ii) identify and analyze the factors influencing the contribution of NTFPs livelihood strategies to household income. The study was carried out analyzing three NTFPs in Rashad locality in the Nuba Mountains, Sudan in 2008–2009. The data were collected through interviews, direct observations and market surveys. Purposive sampling technique was applied to select 221 and 62 collector and trader households, respectively. The results revealed that Adansonia digitata fruit sale represents a subsistence strategy for some sampled households and accumulative strategy for others, while Ziziphus spina-christi and Balanites aegyptiaca fruits sale is a subsistence strategy for all the surveyed households. The study results also showed that the income from selling the fruits was positively and negatively influenced by different external and internal factors. The study concluded that any assumption regarding the potential of NTFPs to positively affect rural development depends on their role in an accumulative strategy that lifts people out of poverty. Institutional, technical and financial supports are necessary to influence the future direction of the NTFP contribution toward accumulative strategy.

► We analyze the role of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) in rural development.
► We identify and analyze the factors influencing the contribution of NTFPs in households’ livelihood strategies.
► We demonstrate the different role played by some NTFPs in a subsistence strategy and in a accumulative strategy.
► We identify the internal and external factors influencing the household incomes from selling NTFPs.