An Analysis of Household Consumers’ Awareness, Perceptions, Attitudes and Behaviour Towards Irish Potato Procurement and Consumption in Urban Areas in Cameroon

The aim of this study was to measure the effects of townspeople’s origin and acculturation on Irish potato procurement and consumption in Cameroon. It is part of the logic of developing strategies for the introduction and diversification of urban dietary practices, to reduce hunger and undernourishment in urban areas. The study plans to discover new dishes and make them culturally and traditionally acceptable following local tastes and preferences. To provide a snapshot of Irish potato city dwellers’ consumers’ characteristics, the study used a cross-sectional design. The cross-sectional sample is made up of 180 subjects, taken in each of the 12 associations; aged at least 10 years, of people, originated from Irish potato-producing areas or non, chosen in Yaoundé city, i.e. 6 associations per category. They must have spent at least 2 years in the association, that is to say, that they have experience of urban life and have stabilized their food supply mode. The main idea was that subjects from producing areas are consumers of Irish potato, following traditional food consumption patterns and concepts of food availability, while those from non-producing areas are consumers who progressively integrate and adopt potato dishes into their diets through the impact of acculturation and exposure. The first was chosen according to the sociocultural factors determining the nature of the traditional food intake in the production areas. All regions in which Irish potato was not produced were considered as non-producing areas. Results show that the predisposition of traditional food systems and preferences lead city dwellers to consume specific foods in particular ways; all the people interviewed consume Irish potato, but not at the same rate; Irish potato dishes vary and people from non-producing areas already eat some dishes like fried potato and chips at high scale. Intercultural associations could thus be an important channel for sharing Irish potato consumption information.