Analysis of Socio – Economic Characteristics of Rice Consumer’s in Adamawa State, Nigeria

Gabul Gabul,Hamid Hamid,Jafar- Furo

doi:10.22161/jhed.3.1.3

Abstract

The study analyzed socio – economic characteristics of rice consumers in Adamawa State Nigeria. The population of the study involved all the households in Adamawa State. However, the research used a sample size of 128 House Hold Heads (HHHs) for the work. Primary data was generated from the respondents through a well-structured questionnaire, but only 120 questionnaires were retrieved and successfully analyzed to accomplish the study. Descriptive statistics, frequencies and percentages were used to describe the socio-economic characteristics of rice consumers in the state. The result revealed that, majority (62.5%) of the respondents are males, majority (39.1%) aged between 31-40 years and majority (87.5%) were married, majority (50.83%) attended post- secondary education, majority (37.5%) had 6-10 members in their household and majority (41.7%) are engaged in business as major source of livelihood. It also showed that majority (40%) earned at least N50, 000 monthly. Similarly, majority (62.5%) spent N20, 000 monthly on rice. It also revealed that most of the respondents consumed rice on daily basis and purchased up to 25kg per month. The paper reveals that, rice consumers in the area were younger, married, had moderate family size, they are literate, and majority belong to business class and earning moderate income. The study therefore concludes that rice consumption is promising in the area evident from the consumer’s income and monthly expenditure on rice. Despite the great demand potential for rice in the area, it is recommended that, sensitization campaigns on improve patronage of home grown and processed rice will go a long way in increasing the demand for domestic rice.

Highlights

Rice is an important annual crop in Nigeria been one of the major staples, which can provide a nation’s population with the nationally required food security minimum of 2,400 calories per person per day according to Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO, 2014)
The State is divided into 21 Local Government areas and has a tropical wet and dry climate with dry season period ranging from November-March while the wet season spans April to October (Adebayo, 1997)
The study reveals that majority of the rice consumers in the area were married and had [6,7,8,9,10] members in their households

Summary

Introduction

Rice is an important annual crop in Nigeria been one of the major staples, which can provide a nation’s population with the nationally required food security minimum of 2,400 calories per person per day according to Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO, 2014). The average Nigerian consumes 24.8 kg of rice per year, representing 9 per cent of annual calorie intake International Rice Research Institute (IRRI, 2011). Due to its increasing contribution to the per capita calorie consumption of Nigerians, the demand for rice has been increasing at a much faster rate than domestic production and more than in any other African countries since mid-1970s (FAO, 2014). During the 1960s, Nigeria had the lowest per capita annual consumption of rice in the West African sub-region with an annual average of 3 kg. Nigeria’s per capital consumption levels have grown significantly at 7.3 per cent per annum. Per capital consumption during the 1980s increased to an annual average of 18 kg and reached 22 kg between 19952000 and 38kg between 2010 and 2016 (FAO, 2017)

Methods

Results

Conclusion