PRODUCTIVITY AND PROFITABILITY OF SMALL SCALE CATFISH FARMING IN ERIWE FARM, ODOGBOLU LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OGUN STATE

ABSTRACT

The study was carried out to evaluate the Productivity and profitability of small scale catfish farming in Odogbolu Local Government Area, Ogun state, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 155 farmers for the study. Data were collected using structured questionnaire. Information was collected on socioeconomic characteristics, inputs and output quantities as well as their prices. Descriptive statistics were used to describe socioeconomic characteristics as well as the constraints to catfish production. The estimation of technical, allocative and economic efficiency and their determinants were achieved using stochastic frontier production and cost function. Food security line and Z-statistic were used to examine the contribution of catfish production on food security status of catfish farmers. The findings revealed that majority of the respondents were literate with mean age of 42 years; majority (56%) of the respondents had a mean household size of 9 people while about half (51%) of the respondents had a mean of 12 years experience in catfish farming. The results also show that an average total cost (TC) of ₦1,520,204.24 per production cycle was incurred while total revenue (TR) of ₦2,873,521.29 was realized with a gross margin (GM) of ₦1,718,616.84. The net farm income (NFI) of ₦1,353,317.05 was realised with a rate of return of 0.89 for every ₦1.00 invested. It was revealed that increase in number of fingerlings, fish feed and fuel will lead to increase in the output of catfish while age, education, experience and cooperative society were key determinants of technical, allocative and economic efficiency of the farmers. The mean technical, allocative and economic efficiencies of the farmers were 0.67, 0.65 and 0.44 respectively. The study highlights some problems facing the farmers such as: lack of access to financial capital, high cost of feed or other farm inputs, limited market sales and flooding during the rainy season and inadequate storage facility as the major constraints in catfish production. It was recommended that the Government should make policies that would encourage and make catfish farming attractive to younger generation as a means of livelihood. Existing farmers should also be encouraged to form cooperatives and access financial assistance from government institutions. The quantity and quality of feed input being fed to the fish should be improved if a reasonable level of productivity is to be achieved by the farmers toward achieving food security.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

The increase in human population and reports of large numbers of people, undernourished or starving (especially in the developing countries) has made the need for food production a major worldwide issue of concern. There are three major groups of activities that contribute to food production namely, agriculture, aquaculture and fisheries. Recent knowledge shows that the world‟s natural stocks of fish and shell fish, though renewable, have finite production limits, which cannot be exceeded even under the best management regimes. For most of our lakes, rivers and oceans, the maximum sustainable fishing limit has been exceeded. Therefore, fish production will depend on aquaculture to bridge the gap of fish supply (Okechi, 2004).

Aquaculture refers to the cultivation of aquatic organisms under controlled or semi- controlled conditions for economic and social benefits. Aquaculture has been the world‟s fastest growing food production over the past decade (Fourier, 2006). The average growth rate has been 8.9% per year since 1970, compared to only 1.2% for capture fisheries and 2.8% for terrestrially meat production over the same period (Brink, 2001). Nigeria has become one of the largest importers of fish in the developing world, importing 600,000 metric tons annually (Olagunju et al., 2007). Nigerians are large consumers of fish with demand estimate at 1.4 million metric tons. However, a demand supply gap of 0.7 million metric tons exists nationally with import making up the short fall at a cost of almost 0.5 billion US dollars per year ( Kudi et al., 2008). Catfish farming is a subset of aquaculture which involves the rearing of catfish under controlled conditions for economic and social benefits. According to Adewumi and Olaleye (2011), the favoured catfish for culture include Clarias gariepinus, Heterobranchus bidorsalis, Clarias heterobranchus hybrid (heteroclarias), with C. gariepinus and H. bidorsalis being the most cultured fish in Nigeria. Clarias gariepinus is regarded as an excellent aquaculture species because it grows fast and feeds on a variety of agricultural by- products, it is hardy and can tolerate extreme temperature, easy to produce in captivity with high annual production and good feed conversion rate.

Fish farming contributes significantly to the economy, creating employment opportunities in rural and urban areas, serving as a viable source of protein nutrients in Nigerian households and improving national food security. In 2009, fish accounted for 16.6 percent of the world population‟s intake of animal protein and 6.5 percent of all proteins consumed (FAO, 2012). Fish culture is an efficient means of animal protein production. It provides nutrition for over one billion people‚ including at least 50 percent of animal protein for about 400 million people from the poorest countries (The World Bank Group, 2011). Globally, fish provides about 3.0 billion people with almost 20 percent of their intake of animal protein, and 4.3 billion people with about 15 percent of such protein (FAO, 2012). Increasing demand for fish products has resulted in the growth of fish farms to meet a substantial part of the world‟s food requirement (Olasunkanmi, 2012).

1.2 Problem Statement

Fish production in Nigeria is not only important as a source of rich protein, but it also can be used to bring about institutional changes. These changes can offer access to production assets and resources which can help to empower the poor and directly promote their livelihoods. The increase in fish consumption as a good source of protein and its cultural and religious acceptability are an indication that catfish culturists must live up to expectation of meeting the local demand (Tsue, Lawal, and Ayuba, 2012).

The current shortfall in fish supply compared to local demand is putting pressure on the price of fish and its products. This can make fish unaffordable for many households in Nigeria and further decreasing the per capita fish consumption rate (FAO, 2010). However, there is significant interest in the development of successful fish farming in Nigeria. The fish industry remains the most virgin investment in Nigeria compared with the importation of frozen fish in the domestic market (Ndu, 2006). A sure means of substantially solving the demand-supply gap is by embarking on widespread homestead/small scale fish production. Also, considerable efforts have been directed at examining productive efficiency of fish farmers in Nigeria that is exclusively focused on technical efficiency of fish farmers in general and profitability of fish farming (Kudi et al., 2008). Consequent upon the increment in awareness of catfish farming and a substantial percentage of small scale catfish farmers in Nigeria, it has prompted the interest of researchers to study this firm, but most of the past studies in Nigeria focused on large scale fish farming (Obasi, 2002). There has been little information on Productivity and profitability of small scale catfish farming and its contribution to food security status of catfish farmers in Odogbolu Local Government Area Ogun state. It is on these bases that the following research questions were addressed by this study:

i. What are the socio-economic characteristics of catfish producers in the study area;

ii. What are the costs and return of catfish production?

iii. What are the technical, allocative and economic efficiencies of catfish production?

iv. What are the determinants of technical, allocative and economic efficiencies of catfish production?

v. What is the contribution of catfish production on household food security status of farmers?

vi. What are the production constraints faced by catfish producers in the study area?

1.3 Objectives of the study

The broad objective of this study is to analyze the Productivity and profitability of small scale catfish in Odogbolu Local Government Area Ogun state, while the specific objectives were to:

i. describe the socio-economic characteristics of catfish producers in the study area;

ii. estimate the costs and returns of catfish production;

iii. estimate the technical, allocative and economic efficiencies of catfish production;

iv. identify the determinants of technical, allocative and economic efficiencies of catfish production;

v. examine the contribution of catfish production on food security status of farmers;

vi. describe the production constraints faced by catfish producers in the study area.

1.4 Justification for the Study

Nigeria is one of the countries in sub-Saharan Africa with great potential to attain sustainable fish production via aquaculture considering extensive mangrove ecosystem available in the country (FAO, 2005). Nigeria is Africa‟s largest producer of catfish but the Netherlands, Hungary, Kenya, the Syrian Arab Republic, Brazil, Cameroon, Mali and South Africa also produce significant quantities (FAO, 2010). The Federal Government of Nigeria has disclosed that about 10million Nigerians are actively engaged in both the upstream and downstream areas of fisheries operations. According to figures revealed by the National Bureau of Statistics, the fisheries sector contributed 1.31% of total GDP in 2012 and this rose to 1.38% at the end of the third quarter of 2013. These figures represent 3.3% and 3.5% of agricultural GDP, respectively. Evaluation of catfish farming will expose the need for catfish farmers to adopt new technologies and achieve sustainable production. This study will also be important in determining the extent to which catfish farmers can raise productivity through improved efficiency with existing resource base and available technologies.

1.5 Statement of Hypotheses

The hypotheses are stated in the null form:

i. Catfish production is not profitable in the study area.

ii. There are no technical inefficiency effects in catfish production

iii. Catfish production has no effect on household food security status

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Item Type: Project Material  |  Size: 76 pages  |  Chapters: 1-5

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