Socioeconomic Determinants of Farmed Catfish Consumption among Low-Income Households in Omu Community. Odogbolu Local Govt Area, Ijebu Ode. Ogun State

Abstract

A 76 day interviewer administered questionnaire was conducted to examine the socioeconomic determinant of farmed catfish consumption palter among the low-income households in Omu Community under the Odogbolu LGA of Ogun State. A cross-sectional research design method was employed to a 100 respondents which are 20% of the entire community population, as gathered from the Local Government. The respondents’ selection technics was completely randomized with implementation of gender equality of ratio 50:50Males and Females Respondents. Data were collected using carefully structured and close-ended questionnaires administered to a segmented sample of ten individual interviewee over a ten randomly selected locations representing the entire population of the study area. While the data collected were analysed using a simple descriptive statistic, notably the measure of central tendency, particularly percentage distribution and frequency of occurrence. Result showed that the residents had a good taste for fish in meeting their daily dietary protein requirement, particularly frozen fish that was closely followed by farmed catfish species. Their choice for farmed catfish consumption is in freshly cooked state, while the people taste for farmed catfish remained unchanged despite their low purchasing power. And they as well maintained a desire to engage in catfish farming given enabling environment. It was recommended that fish farms be established in the community to tap into the market opportunity, while the government is advice to do more in terms of agricultural development of the rural communities.