Journal of Aquaculture Research & Development

Abstract

Technical Efficiency of Aquaculturists in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Omobepade BP, Adebayo OT and Amos TT

This study evaluated the technical efficiency of aquaculturists in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Eighty respondents
were selected via a multistage sampling technique. The primary data were collected through a well-structured questionnaire administered on the selected respondents. Stochastic Frontier Production Analysis (SFPA) was used to determine the technical efficiency of aquaculturists in the study area. The studies revealed that majority (67.5 percent) of aquaculturists in the study area were in the age bracket of 30 and 59 and had secondary school education (13.81 years of schooling). 67.50 percent of the respondents raised fish in earthen ponds with an average stock population of 2050 fingerlings while 32.50 percent had between 41 and 60 m2 pond holdings. Stock population and pond holdings were the significant factors in the inefficiency model, while costs of feed, labour and fingerlings were the significant factors that contributed to the technical efficiency of Aquaculturists. Data analysis from the study further revealed that a typical aquaculturist in the study area had a technical efficiency of 79%.This is a pointer that fish  productivity can be increased in the nearest future by about 21% by adopting the technologies and methods
practiced by the best farmers in the area. However, the inability of farmers to attain the peak of the  production frontier could be attributed to some factors such as inadequate capital, disease outbreak, marketing, poaching and predation. Based on the findings, majority of the respondents were within the economically active age bracket and can be productive if given necessary incentives. Government should therefore provide necessary incentives to boost the morale of aquaculturists in this economic age.