¹Department of Agricultural Economics, Federal University of Agriculture, PMB 2373 Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria.

²Department of Statistics, Federal College of Wildlife Management, PMB 268 New Bussa, Niger State, Nigeria.

*Corresponding Authors’ Contact Details: E-mail Address ✉: frankozoko@gmail.com; Phone Number ☎: Tel: + 2347035945500

Accepted November 08, 2023

The study examines the determinants of households’ rice consumption in Benue State, Nigeria. Specifically, it determines the socio-economic characteristics of households in the study area, examined the household's consumption preferences between locally produced rice brands and imported rice brands, ascertains the factors influencing households' consumption preferences for foreign and local rice brands, ascertains the share of expenditure on rice in the total food budget of households and ascertains the determinants of households demand for rice consumption in the study area. A multistage sampling technique was employed in the selection of 534 households sampled from six (6) randomly selected LGAs in Benue State through the instrumentality of a well-structured questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics, budget share index, LA-AIDS model, and logit model. The result of the descriptive statistics showed that the majority (80%) of the households were male and (20%) were female. A larger proportion, (40%) of the households are in the age group of 42-52 years having one form of education or another and were civil servants. The average household size was 8 with an average monthly income of N and an average of 9 income-earning members in the household, The result of the budget share index indicated that the aggregated households spent 15% income on rice consumption and this lends credence to the growing trend in households rice consumption preference over other food items attesting the central position of rice in the households food basket. The result of LA-AIDS estimates showed that the factors found to be significant in influencing the household's consumption preference for foreign and local rice brands were household size (P <0.10), household income (P < 0.05), frequency of rice consumption (P < 0.10), price of rice (P <0.01), quality of rice (P < 0.10) and ease of preparation of rice (P < 0.10). The study concluded that an improvement in the quality of local rice to attain the high quality desired by households would stimulate local rice consumption preference by households and save the nation from the colossal loss of foreign exchange incurred in the importation of foreign rice to meet local demand. It recommends that since the quality of rice is a major determinant of rice consumption in the study area, Nigeria’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda should lay more emphasis on local rice processing to ensure improvement in local rice quality to make it competitive with foreign rice and this will encourage the consumers shift preference from imported rice to locally produced rice brands.

Key words: Budget share index, consumption preference, food expenditure, households, Nigeria.

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