Demand Elasticities for Food in Nigeria the Case of Meat in IMO State

This paper reports the results of budget survey of urban and rural household meat consumption in selected urban and rural areas of Imo State, Nigeria conducted between November 1984 and January 1986. The primary objective was to describe household meat consumption pattern and determine the nature, magnituds and direction of income, own price and cross price elasticities of demand for meat. A total of 50 households were interviewed repeatedly on bi-weekly basis for the 14 months duration of data collection using structured questionnaires. Wide disparities were found to exist between urban and rural house­hold meat consumption due primarily to wide disparities between urban and rural household incomes. Expenditure(income) elasticities of de­mand were positive and greater than unity for all households and for low and medium income households, indicating that for these house­holds demand for meat was elastic with respect to income. For the high income households, expenditure elasticity was below unity, indicating inelastic demand with respect to income. Household income was the most significant determinant of meat consumption. The policy implica­tions of these findings are discussed.