Edible insects purchase decision and intention to reduce meat for their consumption: evidence from abeokuta, ogun state, nigeria

Motivated by the need to gain understanding of how consumers in developing countries situate within the counter-space of food consumption and environment-friendly society, this study examined factors that can potentially influence consumer’s decision to purchase edible insects, and intention to trade-off meat for insect consumption in Abeokuta, Nigeria. Multistage sampling technique was employed to select households from whom data were collected using questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and logit regression model were used as tools for data analysis. The average age of the respondents was approximately 35 years, with the majority (62.3%) of them unaware of the environmental benefits of edible insects. On the average, household head spent ₦120.78 per month on edible insects. The logit regression analysis revealed education (p<0.05); awareness about health/nutritional benefits (p<0.05) of edible insects as important determinants of purchase decisions and behavioural intention towards reducing meat for consumption of edible insects. The implications of these findings are that the health and nutritional awareness benefits of edible insects and access to formal education are also crucial for edible insect’s consumption. Improved access to formal education and awareness about the health and nutritional benefits of edible insects are thus suggested to stimulate consumption of edible insects.