CONSUMER PREFERENCE ANALYSIS FOR POULTRY MEAT IN DUTSE LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF JIGAWA STATE, NIGERIA

The study examined consumer preference for poultry meat types in Dutse Local Government Area-LGA of Jigawa State. The result showed that majority of the respondent (65.6%) fall within the range of 30-49years, 18.5% were between the age bracket of 18 -29 years, while 11.4% fall between ages of 50 -59 years. The household size showed that majority (73%) of the poultry meat consumers household sizes falls within the range of 1-5years, and 20% of the consumers household sizes falls within the range of 6-10 years. The result showed that majority 52.7% of the respondent earned monthly income of N31, 000 – N50, 000 , 21.4% earned N51,000 – N60,000, 17.1% earned N61,000 - N70,000 and 8.5% earned between N20,000 – N30,000. It also showed that the sampled consumers in the study areas are largely male headed households with 75.7% while 24.2% were female. Respondent ’ s choice on the type of chicken preferred showed that larger 48. 5% number of the respondents preferred broilers followed by cockerel with 32.8% and layers chicken with 18.5% which was least preferred by the consumers. The result for preference showed larger 45.7% of that respondents considered taste of the chicken first, follows by nutritional satisfaction 28.5% and 18.8% of the respondents looks at the prices whether it would be affordable or not before they purchasing the chicken It was shown from the result that the household size which is statistically significant at P< 0.01with positive sign. Result also showed regression coefficient for monthly income which was also significant at P< 0.01 with positive sign, this indicate that increasing the monthly income of the consumers in the study area by 1% holding other factors constant will lead to increase in preference for poultry meat, the positive sign indicates that the higher the monthly income of the consumer, the higher the preference, because people spend more money on what they prefer most, It was also shown that the nutritional value which is statistically significant at P< 0.01 with positive sign indicates that any unit increase in the household size of consumer. The study therefore recommend that poultry farmers should go into the production of the birds that are highly preferred and mostly consumed by their customers to boost their income as well as livelihood.