Determinants of household demand for fruits and vegetables in urban south-western Nigeria

Fruits and vegetables are essential components of the human diet.
However, Nigeria ranks low in consumption of fruits and vegetables.
The factors influencing the demand for some fruit and vegetable groups (leafy vegetables, fruit vegetables, root and bulb vegetables, herbaceous/perennial fruits and tree fruits) among households in urban south-western, Nigeria was investigated.
A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 259 households from the urban southwestern Nigeria.
Data were collected with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire and analyzed using descriptive statistics and the quadratic almost ideal demand system model.
The empirical results showed that the majority (88.0%) of the household heads were male, married (84.9%), educated (93.4%); 20-40 years of age, with an average household size of 4.87±2.27 members and average monthly income of N 47, 973.06. Mean per capita monthly consumption was 5.31 kg (N 475.86), 7.67 kg (N 1341.52), 7.00 kg (N 487.29), 5.01 kg (N 415.05) and 6.07 kg (N 300.19) for leafy vegetables, fruit vegetables, root and bulb vegetables, herbaceous/perennial fruits and tree fruits, respectively.
Expenditure elasticity for leafy vegetables (1.1593), fruit vegetables (1.1814), root and bulb vegetables (1.5908) and herbaceous/perennial fruits (1.6853) indicated that they were luxury goods, while that of tree fruits 
(-1.3452) were inferior goods.
Own-price elasticity for leafy vegetables (-0.5331), fruit vegetables (-0.9196), root and bulb vegetables (-0.7461), herbaceous/perennial fruits (-0.8023) and tree fruits (-0.1234) revealed that they were price-inelastic.
Estimates of cross-price elasticity showed that leafy and fruit vegetables (-0.4855), fruit and root and bulb vegetables (-0.1620), were complements, while leafy vegetables and herbaceous fruits (0.0232), tree fruits and root and bulb vegetables (0.4967) were supplements.
Mean per capita monthly consumption is far below the WHO recommendation of 400 g per capita day^-1 (12 kg capita^-1 month^-1). Thus there is a need for advocacy programmes targeted at promoting fruit and vegetable intake among households.

III All Africa Horticultural Congress

R.B. Ibe, M.A.Y. Rahji, A.I. Adeoti, K.O. Adenegan

fruits and vegetables, budget share, elasticity, quadratic almost ideal demand system

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2018.1225.43