Understanding Consumers` Attitudes: The Key to Increased Intake of Traditional African Vegetable in Tanzania

Abstract

The contribution of Traditional African Vegetables (TAVs) to reduction of malnutrition, stunting and poor health among consumers in Sub-Saharan Africa cannot be overemphasized. This is due to high contents of vitamins, essential minerals and a source of dietary fiber. Although TAVs forms a significant component of many families` diets in Tanzania, consumption is still below the recommend by WHO and FAO in most regions. This paper aims at assessing attitudes towards TAVs and how they influence the intake of these nutrient-dense vegetables in Arumeru District, Tanzania. Cross-sectional design was used during the study. Pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire was used in the survey for face-to-face interview with consumers (n=262). Descriptive statistics were used for data analysis and Principal Components Analysis to show the interrelation among a set of attitudinal statements in order to identify the underlying structure of those attitudinal statements. From factor analyses scores, increasing intake of nutrient-dense vegetables (TAVs) was found to depend on Taste, Health, Freshness and Perception. The results showed that, the likelihood of consuming TAVs tend to be highly dependent on their taste among consumers. Next, Health benefits of TAVs was of high importance to consumers. Also, fresh TAVs were preferred than dried ones. Perception was least important attribute to consumers of TAVs. Consumers with a high awareness on the health benefits from TAVs attached more importance to consumption of these vegetables. In order to increase consumption of traditional African vegetables, promoting positive attitudes of consumers towards these vegetables as well as targeting to change the negative attitudes could play a significant role in encouraging consumers to increase the amounts and varieties of TAVs in their diets.

Keywords: Consumer attitude, traditional African vegetables, principal component analysis, Arumeru District