Assessment of Household Demand for Locust Beans (parkia biglobosa) in South West, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed household demand for locust beans in the south western zone of Nigeria. Oyo and Osun states were purposively chosen in the zone, two local government areas were also selected randomly in each state. One hundred and eighty (180) household heads were sampled systematically in the four Local Government Areas (LGAs). Copies of structured questionnaire were used to collect data from the respondents. The Linear Approximate of Almost Ideal Demand System (LA/AIDS), regression analysis and descriptive statistics were the analytical tools used. The AL/AIDS model results revealed that the household budget share of locust beans increases with an increase in price of maggi (1%), price of knorr (5%) and price of onions (1%), but it decreases with an increase in price of curry (1%), thyme (5%) and total household expenditure (5%). The estimated own price elasticity was less than one and negative (-0.5743) meaning that its demand was inelastic, the positive signs of cross-price elasticity indicated a substitute relationship between locust beans and other condiments (maggi, knorr, curry and thyme) except onions. Expenditure elasticity of locust beans was less than one (0.2244), this confirmed that it is inelastic and a normal good. The result from the ordinary least square regression analysis showed that amount spent on other condiments (-42.85), age (14.140) and household size (16.05) had effects on household demand for locust beans at various levels of significance. Respondents preferred to use locust beans because of medicinal (60%), and nutritional (40%) values, while others rejected it because of offensive odour (68%). Improvement on locust beans processing is needed in order to eliminate the offensive odour

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