Determinants of Food Consumption Expenditure among Agro-Based Firms Workers in Southern Nigeria: Simultaneous Equation Approach

Abstract

The study determines factors that affect food consumption expenditure of agro based firm workers in Cross River State, Southern Nigeria. Cross-sectional data were collected from 250 randomly selected workers of five rubber estates in the region. Descriptive statistics and two-stage least squares method of simultaneous equation model was used in the analyses. Results of the descriptive analysis of the socio-economic characteristic of respondents reveal that, the rubber sub- sector is dominated by the middle age workers who are predominantly males. More than 70% of workers in the industry had some years of formal education; while majority of them had moderate family size. In addition about 97% of the workers have invested more than one year in the sampled estates. Also, 76.8% of respondents belong to the local cooperative society; while only 6% depended solely on their salaries. Furthermore, the results of the regression analysis reveal that salary, tax, family size, non-food consumption expenditure and farm income determined the food consumption expenditure of rubber plantation estates’ workers in Cross River State. The study has identified that remuneration among workers in the sub sector is generally low and this has a marginal positive effect on the food consumption expenditure. To improve workers food consumption expenditures, increase in salary in line with changes in the macro-economic variables in the country is advocated. In addition, policies targeted towards reducing household size and tax as well as the provision of amenities and infrastructures in the rural areas are recommended, as these would upsurge the agro-based workers’ food consumption expenditure and increase productivity in the rubber sub-sector.