Tropentag, October 6 - 8, 2009 in Hamburg "Biophysical and Socio-economic Frame Conditions for the Sustainable Management of Natural Resources"

Towards Boosting Aquaculture Production: An Identification of Key Determinants of Catfish (Clarias gariepinus) Consumption in Ibadan Metropolois of Oyo State, Nigeria

¹Bowen University, Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Nigeria
²Bowen University, Department of Animal Science and Fisheries Management, Nigeria
³Babcock University, Department of Agriculture and Industrial Technology, Nigeria
⁴Olabisi Onabanjo University, Department of Agricultural Economics, Nigeria

Abstract

Recent climatic events and poor fish catch technology have significantly contributed to the decline in the quantity of domestic fish production in Nigeria, while the need to augment local fish supply through importation with hard earned foreign reserve have been inevitable. Presently, aquaculture is fast gaining increasing relevance as a way of reducing the present gap, between fish demand of 2.66 million metric tons and local production of 0.62 million metric tons. Specifically, catfish production has shown great promises in terms of geographic spread, climatic suitability and acceptability in Nigeria. In other to boost aquaculture production through this fish species, it becomes pertinent to investigate the key factor that affects its consumption among different socio-economic and income strata in Ibadan metropolis of Oyo State, Nigeria. The study utilised stratified random sampling to obtain information from 120 households using well structured questionnaire. The respondents were classified into low, medium and high income group based on infrastructural developments in their respective residential locations. The logit regression analysis was used to identify the important determinants of catfish consumption. Results showed that 56% of catfish consumers were female, 88% had tertiary education, 72% had household size of 1-5 people, 39% earn below N 50,000 monthly, 70% spent below N 20,000 monthly on food, 92% consumed between 1-5 kg of catfish monthly. Also, 91% of the total respondents consume fish generally while 68% consume catfish. The logit analysis showed that the amount spent on other fish types and amount spent on other non-fish proteins showed positive significant relationships with the probability of consuming catfish. It is recommended that producer should take advantage of the wide acceptability of catfish and explore all avenues so as to increase their present level of production.

Keywords: Catfish, Clarias gariepinus, protein consumption, household survey, water resources

Contact Address: Adetunji Kehinde, Bowen University, Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Bowen University Road, 23402 Iwo, Nigeria, e-mail: tjgreenkyahoo.com