Households’ acceptability of local (Ofada) rice based on quality attributes in South-West, Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine households’ acceptability of local (Ofada) rice by identifying the quality attributes influencing marginal implicit prices (MIPs) paid by rice consumers’ households in South-West, Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach The data used for this study were collected from a survey of 600 rice-consuming households in the study area. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select the respondents. Well-structured questionnaires were used to collect information on general households’ socioeconomic characteristics, their desirability and preference for local (Ofada) rice, and market prices of Ofada rice. Kendall’s concordance test was performed to confirm agreement among respondents in their rankings of the rice quality attributes. Hedonic price function was used to examine the relationship between implicit prices paid by consumers based on quality attributes of local (Ofada) rice, as observed in the market. Findings The result of Kendall’s coefficient of concordance revealed that there is 73.74 per cent agreement in ranking quality attributes of local (Ofada) rice consumers’ households in the study area. Colour, perceived nutrient level, taste, grain shape and rate of breakage were the most ranked quality attributes with mean attribute ranking scores of 1.56, 1.69, 3.12, 5.53 and 5.86, respectively. The result of the hedonic pricing model revealed that households are willing to pay MIPs of ₦71.03 ($0.20), ₦45.23 ($0.13), ₦32.98 ($0.09), ₦21.06 ($0.06) and ₦14.41($0.04) per kg for colour, grain cohesion, grain shape, perceived nutrient level and perceived chemical storage, respectively, while discounting MIPs of ₦60.55 ($0.17), ₦19.36 ($0.05), ₦17.14 ($0.05) and ₦6.00 ($0.02) for texture, rate of breakage, perceived freshness and low swelling capacity per kg of local (Ofada) rice, respectively. Research limitations/implications Continuous importation of rice into the country has many negative implications such as worsening of the poverty status of local rice farmers, unemployment of teeming youths engaged in rice value chain, and exposure to soaring and unpredictable price bringing unsustainable development. Lastly, over-dependency on rice importation, if not checked, can also permit dumping of low quality and sometimes expired rice into the country. All aforementioned reasons will make it difficult for local rice to compete favourably with imported varieties. Practical implications Kendall’s coefficient of concordance and Hedonic model were used as a diagnostic tools. These diagnostic tools show the need for government and relevant stakeholders to focus on improving the quality of local (Ofada) rice, especially the undesirable attributes. This could be achieved by adopting modern processing technology, that will enhance production and consumers’ acceptability, which could make local (Ofada) rice have good market share against imported brands. Social implications The economic value of a good is revealed by the consumer’s willingness to pay for the good, consequently increasing production through consumers’ acceptability, and improve living standard of farmers and processors through increased earnings. Originality/value The choice of a particular local rice, especially local (Ofada) rice, is made to estimate the effect of different attributes on the price paid by rice consumers’ households and to help in the development of effective technologies and policy that enhance better rice quality using both Kendall’s coefficient of concordance and Hedonic model to achieve the objective. For the first time this research has given clarity on the monetary value attached to local (Ofada) rice consumption by rice consumers’ households through quality attributes.

Improving local rice consumption in Sub-Saharan Africa through social marketing: evidence from Ghana

“…For instance, the findings of Ayeduvor ( 2018 ) show the unpolished nature of local rice, perceived low quality and the perception that the local rice is for poultry feed as major contributing factors to the low consumption of local rice among Ghanaian household consumers. The findings of Ogunleke and Baiyegunhi ( 2019 ) also show that most Nigerians have a negative attitude towards indigenous rice primarily due to perceived low quality, lack of neatness and swelling capacity. Though the factors contributing to the low demand for local rice are primarily behavioural, past efforts aimed at resolving the problem have mainly focused on increasing productivity, improving the quality of the local rice or trying to coerce consumers to reduce the consumption of imported rice by imposing high tariffs on the imported rice with little attention given to behavioural change initiatives such as social marketing to change attitude and behaviour toward the local rice.…”

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Effect of households’ dietary knowledge on local (ofada) rice consumption in southwest Nigeria

“…This same technique was adopted in the second stage to select two local government areas (LGAs) from each selected state. The third stage involved a random selection of two wards each from the two LGAs selected in the second stage based on the lucky-dip approach [39,40], while the last stage involved a random selection of 50 rice consuming households in each of the two wards which sum up to 600 respondents that was used for the study.…”

Does Rice Quality Matter? Understanding Consumer Preferences for Rice in Nigeria

“…When consumers were asked the most important quality they considered when making rice purchases, the most important was being stone free, followed by taste and aroma of cooked rice, and finally a consistent shape with the percentage of broken rice being the least important consideration to consumers (Adeyeye et al, 2010). Previous research in Nigeria (Ogunleke and Baiyegunhi, 2019) found that higher rates of broken grains of Nigeria's local rice caused consumers to discount price. The level of broken grains is importantly used by consumers in grading domestic rice (Diako et al, 2010).…”