Economic analysis and factors influencing profitability of catfish (<i>Clarias gariepinus</i>) production in three LGAs in Osun State, Nigeria

This study examined the economics of catfish production in Osun State. Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted for this research. In the first stage, three LGAs (Ayedire, Egbedore and Ede North LGAs) were purposively selected due to their high rate of fish farming, in the second stage four communities were selected using simple random sampling and in the final stage seven respondents were selected using simple random sampling totaling 84 respondents interviewed. Descriptive statistics, budgetary analysis and regression analysis were all employed. Results revealed that age range of 41-50 years had highest percentage (29.7%) of catfish farmers followed by a close age range of 31-40 years (26.2%). Catfish production was dominated by males (59.5%), majority of the respondents were married (48.8%) and (83.3%) have received formal education with 35.7% of the respondents being engaged in catfish farming for 6 to 10 years. Total Cost for output of catfish was ₦693,099.9k/annum, total revenue generated was ₦3,625,000/ annum, with a net revenue of ₦2,931,900.1k/annum and a return on investment (ROI) of ₦4.68K. Regression result revealed the R2 value was 0.624 with variables of age and household size being positive and significant at 1% respectively and level of education being significant at 5%. Constraints faced by catfish farmers were high cost of fingerlings, high cost of transportation and insecurity of farmers with lack of good road networks in the study area. Fish production was highly profitable, and it’s recommended that government should make credit/inputs available so that the fish farmers will have easy access to rearing inputs.