Consumption Expenditure and Preferences for Animal Products among Low-Income Households in Makurdi Metropolis, Benue State, Nigeria

The consumption expenditure on beef, fish, egg, pork and chicken was investigated using data obtained from randomly selected 80 respondents. It was revealed that, except in the case of fish and beef which had consistent position in the preference ranking, there is no consistency between the households’ consumption preference ranking based on desire and their consumption frequency ranking based on purchasing power. Fish was the most preferred as well as the most frequently consumed by the lowincome households. Educational level, household size, age and monthly income were the major factors through which total expenditure on the selected animal products can be explained. Income elasticity of household expenditure was low (0.121) signifying that increasing household monthly income may be a veritable way of stimulating animal protein consumption among the low income urban dwellers. Furthermore, policies that discourage large family sizes, and sensitization on the importance of animal protein intake will help to increase the animal protein consumption of households.