Comparative analysis of production costs and revenues of small-scale fisheries in Lagos Lagoon, Nigeria

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a study on production costs and revenues of small scale fisheries conducted in Lagos Lagoon from January to December 1994. The fishing units comprised essentially of the gear types and accessories, craft/wooden canoes and a propulsion mechanism with either the outboard engine or paddle. The motorized or non-motorized canoe fisheries were operated with different gear types including gillnets, cast nets, traps, stow nets, lift nets, long lines, hand lines, beach seine nets and encircling nets. The capital investment and the operational costs for the non-motorized canoe fishery ranged between N7,250.00 for hand line and N42,750.00 for stow net fishery. Only 6.0% of the canoes were motorized and the cost of the outboard engine accounted for 38% of the capital assets for encircling net 43% for beach seine net and 72.4% for the gillnet fishery. The revenues generated depended on the fishing efforts as well as the quantity and quality of the catch. Annual return on investment was used in the analysis instead of the linear assessment of depreciation over the years mainly because of the traditional sources of loans which required payment within 1 year of operations. All the non-motorized canoe fisheries recorded profit margins at the end of the first year of operation with the minimum return on investment of 45.70% for hand line fishery. The motorized canoe fishery with encircling nets recorded high profit of 90.30%. Keywords : Production costs, revenues, motorized canoe. AJAZEB Vol. 6 2004: pp. 41-45