초록
Mushroom has economic, food and medicinal value to a large proportion of human populace. This study assessed the consumption pattern of mushroom species in Southwestern Nigeria. Non-probability sampling method was used to select 20 Local Government Areas (LGAs) from 3 states and four communities were selected purposively from each LGAs. Snow-ball sampling approach was used in selecting 5 respondents from each community, making a total of 400 respondents. Descriptive statistics was used to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents, to compare the differences between the local (wild) and Exotic (cultivated) mushroom Species and to determine the rate at which mushroom substitute is consumed among the mushroom consumers. Logit regression was used to identify the factors influencing mushroom consumption in the study area. Thirty percent of the respondents were aged 41 to 50 years, with mean age of 49.76 years. About 82% had tertiary education, 17.3% earned above N200,000 monthly and 8.8% spent above N6000 monthly on mushroom. Logit regression showed that age (-3.21), household size (-2.17) and medicinal benefits (-2.17) had significant (p<0.01) negative effects on mushroom consumption. Conclusively, mushroom has wide acceptance among the general populace, good for food and medicine; hence, awareness should be created through agricultural policy on the need for mushroom cultivation and consumption in Nigeria.