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Abstract
The per capita consumption of livestock products is rising fastest
in regions where there is urbanization and rapid income growth as
people add variety to their diets. Urban consumers are the key movers
of small ruminants’ meat demand. Past research studies have focused
mainly on production aspects with little focus on the small ruminants’
meat consumption patterns. Thus, this study aims at filling the gap
by providing information on patterns of small ruminants’ meat
consumption among different categories of urban consumers with
respect to its own-price, price of other meats and total expenditures.
Multistage and simple random sampling procedures were used to
select a total of two hundred respondents from Dagoretti, Kibera,
Central and Pumwani divisions in Nairobi County. This study
employed descriptive statistics and an extended ideal demand
system model to determine the patterns of small ruminants’ meat
consumption. In all the income groups, own price-price elasticities
were negative and high for small ruminants’ indicating that price for
mutton and chevon greatly influence the demand for small ruminants’
meat. The income elasticities for small ruminants’ meats are greater
than one in all income groups, implying that mutton and chevon are luxury goods for all income groups irrespective of their income levels.
Dissemination of these findings is important to both the scientists and
extension workers to educate and encourage the producers to increase
production which would result in increased income and improved
livelihood of the people