ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF FISH FARMING AND ITS CONTRIBUTIONS TO HOUSEHOLD POVERTY ALLEVIATION IN EBONYI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study assessed the economic analysis of fish farming and its contribution to household poverty alleviation in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Specifically, it described socio-economic characteristics of fish farmers; ascertained farmers’ fish farming management practices; determined cost and returns from fish farming enterprise; ascertained the level of contributions of fish farming to household poverty alleviation; ascertained problems militating against fish farming; and identified strategies to improve fish farming in the study area. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. Multistage sampling procedure was used to select 120 fish farmers for the study. Data was collected with well-structured questionnaires which passed through the Cronbach Alpha coefficient reliability test. The data collected was analyzed with SPSS software using descriptive statistics. Result of the study revealed that majority (93.3%) of fish farmers were male, married (91.7%) and 56.7% of them were between 41-50years of age. A high proportion (77.5%) of farmers reared catfish with 82.5% on concrete pond and earned above N125,000 per month in fish farming. The costs and returns result indicated that fish farmers generate a net income of N 2, 852, 000 per year in fish farming. The level of contribution result revealed that a high proportion (53%) of respondents agreed that fish farming has moderate contribution to poverty alleviation. Similarly, result also indicated that farmers are facing many problems including high cost of feed. Thus, it is recommended that government should subsidize prices of inputs for fish farming so that farmers can make more profits for their households.