A study on household buffalo curd consumption pattern in the dry and intermediate zone in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Buffalo curd is a rich source of nutrients and antioxidants. Therefore, the majority of people prefer buffalo curd amidst low availability. A survey was conducted in Hambantota, Monaragala and Anuradhapura districts to determine the effects of economic and demographic factors on buffalo curd consumption. A cluster sampling was used with 149 observations. The Food Consumption Model was used as the base theoretical framework. The stepwise regression was used to analyze the key factors. According to that, there are five significant variables which are Frequency of Consumption, Monaragala, Hambantota, Income and Consumption Reason. The estimated model has 39.8% of coefficient of determination (R2) value. All the variables were significant under the 5% significance level. The Frequency of Consumption, Monaragala, Hambantota, Income and Consumption Reason have R2 values of 38%, 99%, 54%, 14.9% and 18.6%, respectively. The highest impacts were elicited from location criteria where Monaragala and Hambantota are having higher consumption. The Frequency of Consumption increases the curd consumption by 38%. There are key covariates which need further investigation where they are not significant in the initial model.