Consumer Preference Analysis between Local and Imported Rice Consumption in Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was conducted in Adamawa state Nigeria. The objective was to analyze consumers' preference between local and imported rice in the area. A sample of 128 House Holds Heads (HHHS), were drawn using multi-stages, purposive and simple random sampling techniques. Primary data was generated using structured questionnaire administered to 128 HHHs. However, only 120 were retrieved and subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistics. The descriptive statistics includes frequency count, percentages and means while chisquare analysis was used to test the hypothesis of the study which was stated in a null form, that local rice is better than the imported rice based on certain attributes such as price, swelling capacity, taste, cleanliness, cooking duration, color, odor, grain shape and in the preparation of different recipe. The results revealed that, majority (66.66%), of the consumers prefer local rice based on it lower price and taste respectively while majority (83.34%), (75, 00%) and (66.66%) agreed that imported rice is better in terms of cleanliness, pleasant odor and grain shape. Similarly, rice consumers concur (50%) and (50%) on the cooking duration attributes of both local and imported rice respectively in the area. The study therefore, concluded that, imported rice is better than the local rice based on the percentages and chisquare result which rejected, the null hypothesis, and accepted the alternate ( 2 cal is greater than 2 tab at probability level ( alpha) p= (0.05 ) and (r -1)(c -1) degree of freedom. It is recommended that local rice should be improved in respect to it cleanliness, odor and grain shape which are the attributes by which foreign rice is considered better from this study for it to be competitive at national and international market scenes. This could be achieved through improvement in research and adoption of improved production and processing technologies.