Abstract
The study used the stochastic production frontier model to analyze the resource use efficiency among small scale fish farms in Cross River State, Nigeria. The mean efficiency of 0.89 was obtained indicating room for farm efficiency improvement by 11%. Quantity of feed, farm size (pond size), labour and capital had significant influence on fish production in the study area, with positive coefficients of feed quantity and farm size while that of labour and capital were negative. The return to scale (RTS) was 1.055 indicating increasing returns to scale, which implied that farmers may need to increase the use of productive resources. High cost of feed, unavailable credit, lack of capital and unfavorable price of fish were among the major constraints to fish production in the area. There existed some inefficiency among the sampled farmers. The major contributing factors to efficiency were gender, family size, farming experience and education. This calls for gender mainstreaming when policies that would cause improvement in efficiency are made for implementation. Key words: Resource use, efficiency, production frontier, fish farming, Cross Rivers, Nigeria.
Highlights
Fish farming is the art and science of controlled rearing of fish in ponds, farms and in some instances natural water bodies from hatchlings to mature size (Amos and Bolorunduro, 2000)
The State is located in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, and bounded in the North by Benue State, in the South by the Atlantic Ocean, which is responsible for its rich aquatic resources
The variance parameters of the stochastic production function are represented by sigma squared (σ2) and gamma (γ)
Summary
Fish farming is the art and science of controlled rearing of fish in ponds, farms and in some instances natural water bodies from hatchlings (freshly hatched fishes) to mature size (Amos and Bolorunduro, 2000). It involves the controlled feeding, fertilization, stocking combination, reproduction and harvesting of fish (Amos and Bolorunduro, 2000). Fish culture has been established as the best alternative to bridging the widening gap between the demand for and supply of food fish in the country (Ugwumba and Okoh, 2010).
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