Economics of Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) Production in Bayelsa State, Nigeria.
ABSTRACT
The study investigated the economics of catfish (Clarias gariepinus) production in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The broad objective of the study was to examine the economics of Catfish production in Bayelsa State, Nigeria.
The specific objectives were to: (i) describe the socio- economic characteristics of catfish farming; (ii) determine the technical efficiency of catfish farming; (iii) identify factors that influence technical efficiency of catfish farming.
Analyze the costs and returns associated with catfish farming; and (v) examine the problems associated with catfish farming.
A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select three (3) Local Government Areas (Yenagoa, Ogbia and Kolokuma-Opokuma) purposively based on their predominance in commercial catfish farming and randomly five (5) communities each from the 3 LGAs.
Furthermore nine (9) catfish farmers in each community were randomly selected making a total number of one hundred and thirty five (135) catfish farmers. One hundred and twenty (120) copies questionnaires were retrieved out of one hundred and thirty five (135) copies and used for the analysis.
Structured questionnaire was used to elicit the required information from the selected respondents. The result indicates that 75.0% of the respondents fall between age ranged of 31-50 with the mean age of 42 years.
Majority of the catfish farmers were married (79.2%), males (83.3%) dominated catfish production in the study area, 91.7% had family size of 1-10 people in their households with the mean of 7 people, 92.5% had one form of education or the other.
The result further shows that 87.5% had 1-10 years of farming experience, 83.3% were part-time farmers, 43.4% had farm size of 1-1.5 hectares, 66.7% used family labour while 58.3% had one month contact with extension agent.
Feeds, capital, labour and pond size have significant relationship with catfish production at various probability levels. The mean technical efficiency was 0.92 with minimum and maximum efficiencies of 0.68 and 0.99.
The inefficiency model revealed that farming experience, sex, pond type and number of ponds were the variables that increased the technical efficiency of the respondents. Total Fixed Cost (TFC) was
₦881,500.00 while Total Variable Cost (TVC) was ₦3,956,025.01with Net Farm Income (NFI) of ₦3,113,183.32 during production period of six months. Return on investment was ₦0.64 which implies profitability of catfish production in the study area.
The study also identified high cost of feed, inadequate finance, inadequate seed supply, lack of land, lack of organized market, high cost of transportation, lack of modern technologies, and high cost of labour were the major problems faced by catfish farmers.
It is therefore recommended that farmers need for government and non –government support in terms of improves feed research that will help to reduce the cost of catfish feeds without reducing the efficacy of the feeds.
Furthermore, there is need to be given proper orientation and/or basic training in major farm management techniques most especially participation in programmes that address efficient allocation of production resources. This will help increase their level of profitability, hence, be more efficient.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
Title page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Abstract vi
Table of content vii
List of table x
List of figure xi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study 1
1.2 Problem of the statement 4
1.3 Objectives of the study 6
1.4 Hypotheses of the study 6
1.5 Justification of the study 6
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Concept of fish farming 8
2.2 General background of Nigerian fisheries 9
2.3 Productive efficiencies and their determinants 12
2.4 Efficiency 14
2.4.1 Technical efficiency 15
2.4.2 Profit efficiency 15
2.4.3 Cost efficiency 16
2.5 Production system of catfish in Nigeria 17
2.5.1 Pond construction methods 17
2.6 The production cycle of catfish 20
2.6.1 Seed supply, hatchery production and nursery 20
2.6.2 Feed supply 21
2.6.3 Harvesting techniques 22
2.6.4 Handling and processing 23
2.6.5 Markets 23
2.6.6 Production costs 24
2.6.7 Diseases and control measures 24
2.6.8 Basic fish disease treatment 25
2.7 Role of fisheries in national economy 26
2.8 Economic importance of fish 26
2.9 Problems of fish farming 29
2.10 Prospect of fish farming 30
2.11 Theoretical framework 31
2.12 Concept of profitability 31
2.13 Theory of production 34
2.13.1 Production function 35
2.14 Analytical framework 36
2.14.1 Translog stochastic frontier production model (SEPM) 36
2.14.2 Budgetary model 39
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY
3.1 The study area 41
3.2 Sampling procedure 41
3.3 Validity and reliability of instrument 42
3.4 Data collection 42
3.5 Data analysis 42
3.5.1 The stochastic frontier production function 42
3.5.2 Inefficiency model 43
3.5.3 Budgetary model 43
CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 Socio-economic characteristics of catfish farmers 45
4.2 Technical efficiency of catfish farmers 51
4.3 Factors that influence technical efficiency of catfish farmers 52
4.4 Costs and returns of catfish farmers 55
4.5 Problems associated with catfish farmers 56
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECCOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary 58
5.2 Conclusion 59
5.3 Recommendations 59
REFERENCES
APPENDICES
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Fish farming is the sub-set of aquaculture that focuses on rearing of fish under controlled or semi-controlled conditions for economic and social benefits. Aquaculture is the rearing of aquatic organisms under controlled or semi-controlled conditions for economic and social benefits. Aquatic organisms include fishes, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants. Culture implies some forms of intervention in the rearing process to enhance production such as regular stocking, feeding, protection from predators etc Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO, 2006).
In Nigeria, the production of food has not increased at the rate that can meet the increasing population. While food production increases at a rate of 2.5%, food demand increases at a rate of more than 3.5% due to high rate of population growth of 2.83% (Ojo & Fagbenro, 2010). The apparent disparity between the rate of food production and demand for food in Nigeria has led to a food demand supply gap thus leading to a widening gap between domestic food production and total requirement, an increase resort to food importation and high rates of increase in food prices and as a result, wide spread hunger and malnutrition are evident in the country (Ugwumba & Chukwuji, 2010).
The growth of a country’s population is usually accompanied by increase in the demand for the basic necessities of life including water, food and shelter. This is the case with the unrestricted increase in the demand for protein rich food items of animal origin especially. FAO(1991), recommended that an individual takes 35 grams per caput of animal protein per day for sustainable growth and development. However, the animal protein consumption in Nigeria is less than 10 grams per person per day, which is a far cry from the FAO minimum recommendation (Onoja & Achike, 2011).
REFERENCES
Adediran, I.A., (2002). Super-Intensive Fish Culture Using Water Re-circulating System. Proceedings of Seminar on Fish Farming, Success Attitude Development Centre (SADC), pp: 1–4. Lagos, Nigeria.
Adegeye, A. J &Dittoh J .S. (1985).Essentials Agricultural Economics.Ibadan, Oyo State. ImpactPublishers.
Adekoya, B.B. & J.W. Miller, (2004).Fish Cage Culture Potential in Nigeria-An Overview.
National Cultures. Agric. Focus, 15: 10.
Adekoya, B.B. & Miller, J.W. (2005).Fish Cage Culture Potential in Nigeria: Anoverview.
NationalCultures Agriculture Focus1(5): 10.
Adeniji, H.A (1987).Fish Consumption in Nigeria: Implication for Fishery Development Policies. Journal of West African Fish, 1987; 3(2): 151 – 161.
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