Consumers’ attitude and perception of Moringa oleifera products in Nasarawa state, Nigeria

Ilesanmi Ayodeji Amoran, BSc

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Moringa is mostly used for medicinal, nutritional, culinary, pharmaceutical, and as vegetables for consumption in many parts of the world. It has been proven to be effective in combating food insecurity in the society, considering that it significantly contributes to the improvement of nutrition and health situation of people that consumes it. Therefore, seeing that there is a rising population growth with more demand for food and nutritional balance, the consumption of tree crop as moringa can be considered as an option for health and nutritional intake. In the case of Nigeria, particularly in the study area, there is an increasing rate of stunted growth which is mostly caused by inadequate/unhealthy diet at any time of life, limited access to food, nutrition knowledge deficiency and so on. Noteworthy is that moringa is planted by nearly every household in the area, therefore, the attitude and perception of consumers to moringa oleifera in the area then becomes important for study. A total of 210 respondents were evaluated, where only 202 were fit for final analysis; and data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, Mann Whitney U test, binary logistic and probit regression models. The study identified the form of use, the perceived health risk of the respondents, the factors influencing the decision to consume moringa products, and finally, the main reason why they consume moringa products from the perspective of health benefit. The study tested how socioeconomics and psychographic characteristics determines consumers’ willingness to pay for moringa tea products, and how previous experience had a positive relationship on consumers’ willingness to pay for Moringa oleifera products. The result showed that boiled fresh leaf was the most consumed form, the respondents preferred synthetic drugs to moringa products because they are produced in the laboratory and prescribed by qualified doctors, age and education were factors influencing their decision to consume; immune boosting, energy intake and fever treatment were the top 3 reasons why they consume moringa. Level of education, affordability of moringa products, Perception of the price of close substitute were factors influencing their willingness to pay for moringa tea; fair price offered, and expectation met are factors that were significant based on the previous experience of the consumers. The study recommends the use of moringa as a functional food since they contain essential compounds of antiaging drugs which can inhibits cancerogenesis; Government and pharmaceutical body should give it needed support for wide publicity at an affordable price; to bridge information gap, food dietary program/training should be organized to educate and sensitize the public on the use of moringa.

Keywords

Willingness to pay, Willingness to consume, Medicinal and Nutritional purpose, Malnutrition

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 23. 4. 2023

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 29. 5. 2023
• Supervisor: Ing. Petra Chaloupková, Ph.D. dr. h. c.
• Reader: Stephen Onakuse, Ing., externi

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Master programme:
International Development and Agricultural Economics