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.

The study examined the households’ consumption preference for cowpea and its products in Western zone of Bauchi State, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling procedure was employed in the selection of 210 households. Data were collected using questionnaire and analyzed with descriptive statistics and multinomial logistic regression. The study revealed that majority (75.7%) of households’ highly preferred alale as cowpea-based products and used kwankwasiya cowpea variety to make kosai (52.3%), alale (87%), cowpea soup (39.5%), rice and beans (53.3%) dishes, respectively.  Furthermore, 35.7% of households prefer to consume kwankwasiya cowpea variety than other varieties. The result of the multinomial logistic regression analysis revealed that, age (P<0.05), educational level (P<0.1), occupation (P<0.1), income (P<0.1), price (P<0.01), time taken to cook (P<0.1), taste (P<0.05) and weevil damage tolerance (P<0.05) were statistically significant in determining the factors influencing households’ consumption preference for cowpea varieties. The major constraints to household preference for cowpea consumption include high cost of cowpea (97.1%), insect infestation (81.4%) and abdominal discomfort (70.0%) among others. The study concluded that households’ highly preferred alale as cowpea-based products and used kwankwasiya cowpea variety to make different dishes. The study recommended that effort should be made by stakeholders and breeding institutions to create policies that would be favourable to control the menace of price fluctuations of cowpeas and cowpea farmers should divert more resources to the production of kwankwasiya cowpea variety so that they can meet consumer demand and increase their level of income.

The study examined the socio-economic characteristics of cowpea-based consumers 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. The results revealed that majority (82.9%) of the households were males with a mean age of 42years. The result also showed that 79.5% and 42.9% were married and had tertiary education, respectively. The findings revealed a mean household size and mean income of 10 persons and ₦35,485.71, respectively. Furthermore, the result showed that 34.3% of households consumed cowpea daily, 31.9% and 12.8% consumed cowpea twice a week and thrice a week, respectively. The major constraints to cowpea consumption include high cost of cowpea (97.1%), insect infestation (81.4%) and abdominal discomfort (70.0%) among others. The study recommended that government should create an enabling environment to make the prices of food items most especially cowpea reasonable and affordable by creating a favourable policies on price to tackle the menace of price fluctuations and Cowpea farmers should be encouraged to use improved cowpea varieties that are resistant to insect attacks so as reduce the damaged done by insects.