Assessment of Resource-Use Efficiency in Catfish Production in Akure North and South Local Government Areas, Ondo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed resource-use efficiency in catfish production in Ondo State, Nigeria. The study examined the socio economic, resource and institutional characteristics of catfish farmers; and determined the factors influencing resource use efficiency in catfish production in the study area. To achieve these objectives the study used a multi-stage sampling procedure to select a hundred (100) catfish farmers in two Local Government Areas (LGAs) and the data were collected through a well-structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and Stochastic Frontier Production Function (SFPF) of the Cob-Douglas functional form and ordinary least square regression analysis were used to analyse the data collected. The findings shows that the mean age of the fish farmers was 48 years and 78% of the farmers were males. It also indicated that most (99%) of the farmers were educated and majority (91%) were new in the business. The resource information of the farmers shows that more than average of them accessed land through purchase and mostly relied on underground water for their farming, fifty-eight percent (58%) sourced their fingerlings and juveniles from private farms and 60% solely rely on family labour for their production. The Stochastic Frontier Production Function showed that feed consumed and fishing equipment were statistically significant determinants of resource-use efficiency of the catfish farmers at 1% level of significance. The elasticity of production and return to scale showed that catfish farmers in the study area were in stage II of production. Therefore, the study concluded that resource factors like feed, fingerlings and fishing equipment were factors that influenced catfish production efficiency among catfish farmers in the study area. It was recommended that catfish farmers should carefully consider an economic reduction in the number of ponds/tanks to reduce cost of production and raise the existing gross margin of respective farms.