Household demand analysis for cowpea in Minna, Niger State, Nigeria.

Abstract

There were no recent documented studies that examined cowpea demands at finer levels of disaggregation and at regional levels. Therefore, this study investigated Household demand for cowpea in Minna, Niger State, Nigeria. The study obtained a cross sectional data on consumption expenditure by households for varieties of cowpea through a structured questionnaire. A signified random sampling based on income groups was used to select 120 respondents from Minna and the data were analyzed using the Almost Ideal Demand system (AIDs) model, Estimate of the AIDs model included that the expenditure parameters were all negatively related to their respective expenditure shares at -0.241 for white cowpea, -0.1174 for brown cowpea and -0.1527 for green bean. Beans varieties were all normal goods with expenditure elasticities of 0.99, Marshallian own price elasticities of beans varieties are price inelastic while Hicksian cross price elasticity revealed beans varieties as close substitutes. It was recommended that investment should be targeted towards improvement in the production of cowpea especially all year round. The significant level of own price elasticity in all varieties, suggest the need for domestic food policy intervention that promote price subsidies.