ANALYSIS OF DEMAND FOR BEEF AMONG HOUSEHOLDS IN OSHIMILI SOUTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA

Abstract

The Study was conducted to establish the demand analysis for beef among households in Oshimili South Local Government Area, Delta State. A total of 120 respondents were randomly selected for the study and primary data was collected through the use of questionnaire and analyzed by the use of descriptive statistics and regression analysis. The result shows that 37.5% of the respondents were in the age range of 31-40 with a mean age of 38.92. Majority (66.55%) of the respondents had 6-10 persons in their household. Less than half of respondents (42.5%) were into business. Result obtained indicates that most households in the study area demanded 1.1-2.0kg of beef per week. The linear model was adopted as the best fit as it has the highest R² value as well as highest number of significant variables. The R² value of 0.518 implied that about 52% of the changes in the demand for beef were actually caused by the changes in the variables that were entered into the model. The size of the household had a coefficient of 421.75 and significant at P<0.01. This showed that the more the size of the household of the respondent the more the demand for meat. Level of education variable had a coefficient of 386.92 and statistically significant at P<0.005. This implied that the higher the level of education, the more the demand for beef. The price of beef with a coefficient of -499.67 and is statistically significant at P<0.01. The coefficient is also negatively signed. The implication of this is that an increase in the price of beef will lead to a decrease in the demand of the products. The level of income of respondents with coefficient of 982.08 and is statistically significant at P<0.01. This implies that the more the income of the consumer the more they demand meat products all things being equal. It was recommended that Government should subsidize the cost of inputs for cattle production, this will in turn cause a reduction in the price of beef.