Food demand projection and consumption patterns of urban households in Nigeria's Kano State

Abstract EN

Changes in population and income are essential components for altering the pattern of food demand.

in light of the importance of food demand analysis, this study set out to ascertain urban household consumption trends in Nigeria's Kano state in order to forecast future demand levels for certain food items.

a households’ cross sectional survey data elicited through a well-structured questionnaire complemented with interview schedule from a total of 144 households chosen via a multi-stage sampling procedure were used for the study.

the survey was conducted in the year 2022 and the collected data were analyzed using both linear approximate / almost ideal demand system (LA / AIDS) and factor analysis models.

based on the empirical evidence, households’ poor purchasing power that owes to high food inflation makes them to have low dietary diversity.

besides, the necessary and luxury goods respectively were rice, beans, spaghetti and meat; and, millet, yam, Irish potatoes, semovita, fish and groundnut.

whereas, maize, garri and palm oil were established to be inferior commodities.

besides rice and semovita being everyday goods, they are demand high price sensitive commodities.

further, the challenges that inhibited households’ food consumption in the study area were inflation, households’ population explosion, occupational hazards, debt and economic meltdown.

moreso, the projected per capita food demand for local rice, Irish potatoes and indomie noodles will be steep.

consequently, to maintain status quo in the households’ welfare, onus lies on policy makers to compensate consumers if there is rise in the prices of local rice, indomie and groundnut oil.

besides, the study advice policymakers to increase the productivity of those food items projected to witness steep-to-gentle rise in demand; and government should endeavor to adopt macro-economic policies with human-face so as to cushion / soften households’ economic hardship in the study area.