7 pages, This study was carried out to determine the fish farming practices, development and constraints among fish farmers in Ibi Local Government Area (LGA), Taraba State, Nigeria. A sampling frame was drawn from the list of 740 fish farmers registered with the Department of Fisheries and Forestry, Ibi LGA, Taraba State. A multistage stratified design was used for selecting the respondents for the study. The first stage involved stratification of the Local Government into Districts (Sarkin Kudu, Dampar and Ibi). The second stage was selection based on the prevalence of fish farmers in the districts. The third stage involved random selection of 90, 69 and 63 (30%) fish farmers from each district to obtain a sample size of 222 respondents. Data from the study were collected through structured questionnaire and scheduled interview administered to the respondents. Data were analyzed using descriptive (frequency distribution and percentages) and inferential (non parametric test at coefficient of 0.116 and p-value of < 0.05) statistics. Results show that concrete tanks were mostly used by fish farmers (35.0%) and sourced fingerlings for stocking through personal hatchery (34.9%), practiced poly culture (58.90%) and monoculture techniques (56.50%). The culture system was predominantly intensive (90.0%), Clarias spp were cultured (68.9%) and fed on imported floating feed (72.0%). The major constraints to fish production are inadequate infrastructure, high cost of inputs, poor quality of fish seed and poor extension services on fish farming. The study recommends that the Government should grant import duty waiver on fish farming inputs and monitor the implementation so that the policy can benefit intending and existing fish farmers. Efforts should be intensified on different areas of fish farming development.
12 pages. Located on pages 17-28 of pdf., The study assessed the level of awareness and determined the level of participation of fish farmers in Agricultural Insurance Scheme (AIS) with a view to improving on the level of awareness and consequently participation. The study adopted the survey method of research. The study population comprised all the 1,728 registered fish farmers in Ondo State. Only 295 respondents were sampled from the population using the Raosoft sample size calculator. Multi-stage sampling procedure was adopted to distribute the sample population among the Local Government Areas (LGAs). Two Local Governments Areas (LGAs) were purposively selected from each of the four zones based on the prominence in fish farming. Second stage involved random selection of two communities each from the selected LGAs. At the last stage, fish farmers register was used to proportionately distribute the farmers to LGAs. The results showed the mean age of fish farmers to be 44.6±10.1years and majority (83.4) were married. The mean household size was 5±2 and about 96% was able to read and write. The mean years of fish farming experience was 13.54±11.9 and all of them were smallholders. About 70.5% were aware of AIS but only 15% were under fish policy cover for the last five years. Majority (82.3%) had moderate participation level with only 4.4% with high level of participation. There was strong correlation (R = 0.759) between the variables investigated and level of participation. Also three variables age, contact with extension and awareness regressed positively while number of information sources and household size regressed negatively with level of participation. It was concluded that despite the high level of awareness, level of participation was low.
8 pages, The role of information in agricultural development cannot be overemphasized, as information is vital in increasing production, improving marketing and enhancing distribution strategies. Therefore, the study examined the impact of information communication technologies on the technical efficiency of fish farming in Ogun State, Nigeria using a stochastic production frontier approach. In a cross-sectional survey, a multi-stage sampling technique was employed to elicit primary information from 120 fish farmers. Major ICT sources used by the fish farmers include television (81.7%), radio (79.2%) and the Internet (68.3%). The average output of catfish has positive and significant elasticity with regards to each input variable except family labour. The inefficiency model revealed that the age of farmers, farming experience, television and radio usage were significant but negatively related. That means that any increase in any of these factors will reduce the inefficiency of fish farmers and bring about an increase in technical efficiency. This implies that it is possible to increase technical efficiency in fish farming in the study area provided that the media channel (radio and television) predominantly used is improved. This study recommends a reduction in family labour usage while at the same time encouraging young people to venture into fish farming.
