ABSTRACT:

This study analyzed the demand for tomato in Maiduguri Metropolitan Area of Borno State, Nigeria.Purposive sampling was used to select households from stratified wards in the study area. The studycovered the three socio-economic strata of residential areas in Maiduguri Metropolitan Area wardswhich are; low income areas (Gwange, Bulabulin), middle income areas (Hausari, Gamboru) andhigh income areas (Bolori and Maisandari). Eighty respondents were selected for the study. Datawere analysed using descriptive statistics, inferential statistics and price elasticity of demand. Thefindings of the study indicated that 65.43% of the respondents were females with 45.3% of therespondents falling within the age of 31 – 40 years of age for all income areas. The result furthershowed that 69.8% of the respondents were married for all income areas and 44% for low, middleand high income were literate. The household size of the majority (43%) of the respondents from lowand high income areas ranged from 1–5 (persons) while the middle income areas the range was6–10 persons. Also50% compared with 40.7%of the respondents for low and middle income areashad an income of less than ₦20,000 while majority of the respondents from high income areas hadan income of ₦51,000–₦80,000 per month. The results also revealed that majority of therespondents (43.5%) from all the income areas consume tomato on daily basis and prefer freshtomato (62.2%). About 45.4% of the sampled population of middle and low income areas consideredfreshness as the reason for preference while 46.1% of the high income areas considered nutrition.Also 70% of all sampled population claimed to consume tomato in different kind of dishes. Averagequantity of tomato consumed monthly was found to be 1kg for all respondents and also majority ofthe respondents 58.1% from all income areas buy there tomato from retailers. Multiple regressionanalysis revealed the R2 was estimated at 0.840 and that gender, household size, monthlyexpenditure on tomato, price of tomato, monthly expenditure on complimentary products have apositive coefficient while age, marital status, level of education have a negative effect on demand fortomato. The result of the price elasticity of demand was (-0.8) which implied that a proportionatechange in price of tomato leads to less than a proportionate change in quantity demanded. Themajor constraints to tomato consumption were rapid deterioration in quality and off-season tomatoscarcity for all income groups in the study area.