FACTORS INFLUENCING HOUSEHOLDS’ CONSUMPTION PREFERENCE FOR COWPEA-BASED PRODUCTS IN WESTERN ZONE OF BAUCHI STATE, NIGERIA

The study examined the factors influencing households’ consumption preference for cowpea-based products in Western zone of Bauchi state, Nigeria. A multi-stage random sampling technique was employed in the selection of 210 households for this study. Data were collected using questionnaire and analyzed with descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression. The result revealed that 44.3% of the households preferred to consume alale, followed by kosai with 23.3%. The result further showed that 99.0% and 91.4% of the households considers health benefit and nourishment as reasons for using cowpea-based products. The result of multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that, age of the household heads, household size, marital status, income of the household heads, price, taste, and weevil damage tolerance significantly influenced household consumption preference for cowpea-based products. The study concluded that, households prefer to consumed alale as cowpea-based products and considers health benefit as a strong reason for used. It was recommended that, there is need to encourage more utilization of cowpea by households’ in different products in order to exploit its potential and generate income to low income families; and cowpea farmers should be encouraged to produced cowpea varieties in commercial quantity so as to meet the demand of consumers and consequently reduce the price of cowpea.