Untitled

Abstract

This study on rice consumption in Cameroon: A need for policy change was designed to analyze the social and economic factors that determine rice consumption in the North West Region. A random selection of rice consumers (285) and rice sellers (102) from the seven divisions of the North West Region constituted the sample. The data was collected using structured and pre tested questionnaires and discussion guides. The data was analyzed using the descriptive statistics and the multinomial logit model. Rice consumers were of all ages and a sight majority of them were females (56.84%) while for rice sellers 62.7% were males. For rice consumption, 46% of the respondents consume at least 25kg of rice per month with 44.21% of the respondents consuming it twice a week. In rice selling, the most experienced has 28 years while the majority has at least 10 years experience in the activity. There were 31 different rice types in the market with 24 imported rice brands and seven local rice types. The study results show that for the retailing price the most expensive rice type cost 500FCFA/kg (Franc de la communauté Financière l'Afrique) for local and 1,000FCFA for imported rice while the cheapest sells at 322FCFA/kg for imported rice brand and 273FCFA/kg for local rice. Findings indicated that the choice of imported rice brands that the sellers supplied in the market significantly influenced the likelihood that imported rice was preferred by consumers. In addition, other analysis revealed that high prices of the local rice and difficult cooking techniques which appears to result from its poor quality lessened the likelihood that consumers bought local rice in the markets. Furthermore, the income level of consumers did not significantly influence their rice preferences. The need for the government to support local rice producers and corporations acquire modern rice processing equipment; increase taxes levied on importation of rice and the systematic imposition of quotas on rice importation were recommended.