Effects of food prices on consumption pattern of consumers: A case study of Lafia Local Government Area Nasarawa State, Nigeria

The study examined the effects of food prices on consumption pattern of consumers in Lafia Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, Nigeria. Primary data were obtained from a sample of 100 households. The data collected were first classified according to the income level of the respondents and then descriptive statistics and analysis of variance were applied. The result of the study indicated that about 36% of the respondents fell within the age bracket of 41 to 50 years while 76% of the respondents were male and 94% of the respondents were married. The result further showed that 42% of the respondents had a family size of between 6 to 10 persons. Also 49% of the respondents had at least tertiary education and 40% were civil servants and 59% of the respondents were high income earners. The study indicated the consumption pattern of the respondents and revealed that the three categories of income groups consumed almost the same quantity of basic food items. Meanwhile the result also showed that higher expenditure was observed amongst the lower income groups for rice, cowpea, palm oil and yam with frequencies of 15.0, 15.1, 8.3 and 8.3% respectively. There was significant difference between the income groups as determined by the one-way analysis of variance (F = 3.4) with cowpea highly significant at 5% level. The study also revealed the major cause of variations in food prices which included high cost of transportation, farmers/herdsmen clashes, and removal of fertilizer subsidy among others. Based on the findings, the study recommends that government should intervene through food policy to mitigate the effects of food price volatility and government should try and end the clashes between farmers and herdsmen in important producing states.