ABSTRACT
The study was carried out to evaluate the economics of catfish production and its contribution towards achieving household food security in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nigeria. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select 155 farmers for the study. Data were collected using structured questionnaire. Information was collected on socioeconomic characteristics, inputs and output quantities as well as their prices. Descriptive statistics were used to describe socioeconomic characteristics as well as the constraints to catfish production. The estimation of technical, allocative and economic efficiency and their determinants were achieved using stochastic frontier production and cost function. Food security line and Z-statistic were used to examine the contribution of catfish production on food security status of catfish farmers. The findings revealed that majority of the respondents were literate with mean age of 42 years; majority (56%) of the respondents had a mean household size of 9 people while about half (51%) of the respondents had a mean of 12 years experience in catfish farming. The results also show that an average total cost (TC) of ₦1,520,204.24 per production cycle was incurred while total revenue (TR) of ₦2,873,521.29 was realized with a gross margin (GM) of ₦1,718,616.84. The net farm income (NFI) of ₦1,353,317.05 was realised with a rate of return of 0.89 for every ₦1.00 invested. It was revealed that increase in number of fingerlings, fish feed and fuel will lead to increase in the output of catfish while age, education, experience and cooperative society were key determinants of technical, allocative and economic efficiency of the farmers. The mean technical, allocative and economic efficiencies of the farmers were 0.67, 0.65 and 0.44 respectively. The study highlights some problems facing the farmers such as: lack of access to financial capital, high cost of feed or other farm inputs, limited market sales and flooding during the rainy season and inadequate storage facility as the major constraints in catfish production. It was recommended that the Government should make policies that would encourage and make catfish farming attractive to younger generation as a means of livelihood. Existing farmers should also be encouraged to form cooperatives and access financial assistance from government institutions. The quantity and quality of feed input being fed to the fish should be improved if a reasonable level of productivity is to be achieved by the farmers toward achieving food security.
