Analysis of price and income elasticities for cereals food crops in an Urban Town of Kaduna, Nigeria.

Abstract

The study utilized the extensive data collected on Food Demand and Markets Surveys, undertaken by International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in conjunction with Kaduna State Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) between 1999/2000. The objective of the study is to estimate the price and income elasticities of cereals food crops in the study area. The results of the price and income elasticities of demand suggest that urban households in general are responsive to changes in own price and income in adjusting their consumption patterns. It was shown that the price elasticites for maize, sorghum, millet and rice were -0.6, -0.4, -0.9 and -0.9 respectively, while the expenditure elasticities were 0.6, 0.4, 0.6 and 0.7 for maize, sorghum, millet and rice respectively. The estimates of cross price elasticities suggested that the substitution effects of price changes were not statistically significant for all the cereals.

Keywords: Consumption Expenditure, price and cross-price elasticities

Agrosearch Vol. 8 (1&2) 2006: pp. 59-66