ABSTRACT
Fish farming has been recognized as a viable means of increasing domestic fish production. Fish culture facility and their accessories add up to form a large portion of fish farm capital, which invariably affects fish growth, yield and returns.
This research work was designed to assess the Economics of catfish reared in freshwater tidal earthen ponds and tarpaulin tanks in Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State, Nigeria. The study described the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers under both culture facilities, compared the technical production efficiency of each culture facility,examined the factors affecting profitability in each culture facility andcompared the costs, returns and profit under both culture facilities. Primary data were collected with the aid of structured questionnaires from 176 freshwater tidal earthen pond farmers and 150 tarpaulin tank farmers respectively using random sampling. However, 315 questionnaires comprising 139 from tarpaulin tank farmers and 176 from tidal earthen pond farmers were filled and returned. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive, budgetary, stochastic production frontier models and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).
The research results revealed that all the respondents had varying levels of formal education with 54% of them attaining tertiary education level. 72% of the respondents were aged between 30 and 49years, 73% were married and 53% had a family size range of 1 to 5. Fish farming was a secondary source of income for 86% of the respondents. More than half of the respondents had less than 4 years of fish farming experience and 61% funded their enterprises from personal savings. The efficiency analysis showed that majority (67.61% and 71.94%) of the tidal earthen pond and tarpaulin tank facilities respectively fell into the efficiency class of 0.61-0.70. The mean efficiency score was 0.641 and 0.653 for tidal earthen pond and tarpaulin tank facilities respectively. Results from the study also revealed that a number of factors such as inadequate capital, fish diseases and control, cost and quality of feeds, poor marketing structure for fish produced, mean weight of fish at harvest and the unit selling price amongst others were capable of hampering profitability under both facilities.Results from the study showed the cost per unit of fish produced to be ₦591.3 and ₦635.1 for tarpaulin tank and tidal earthen pond facilities respectively. The gross farm income was ₦627,676 and ₦418,690, the net farm income was ₦147,552.8 and ₦61,582.05 and Return on Investment was 0.307 and 0.172 for tidal earthen pond and tarpaulin tank respectively. This showed that yield and profitability were higher under tidal earthen pond facility. Analysis of Variance of variable costs, fixed costs and returns between both culture facilities were found to be significantly different under the 5% significance level.In conclusion, catfish culture using either facility is profitable although tidal earthen ponds yielded more profit. Hence, wherever tidal earthen ponds are available, they should be used instead of tarpaulin tanks.
