Abstract

The technical efficiency of the African catfish production in Nigeria was assessed. A total of 609 farms were sampled, and 1,118 operations were recorded covering both the pre-COVID and COVID periods. A translog stochastic frontier modeling approach was used to simultaneously assess the technical efficiencies and the determinants of technical inefficiency of the catfish farmers. The mean technical efficiency for the catfish production in Nigeria is 85.4% indicating a scope of increasing production by 14.6% given the current technological state, which could contribute an additional 42,273 metric tons of fish to Nigeria’s aquaculture. Comparative analysis showed that catfish producers during the COVID-19 period and producers from the Southern region were more technically efficient. The effect of management-dependent determinants is presented. Beyond management approaches, technical efficiency is seen to be improved significantly through the use of quality inputs. Based on these, measures for successful catfish production in Nigeria are recommended.

摘要

对尼日利亚非洲鲶鱼生产的技术效率进行了评估。总共对 609 个农场进行了抽样，并记录了 1,118 次操作，涵盖了新冠疫情之前和新冠疫情期间。采用跨对数随机前沿建模方法同时评估鲶鱼养殖者的技术效率和技术效率低下的决定因素。尼日利亚鲶鱼生产的平均技术效率为85.4%，考虑到目前的技术状况，产量可增加14.6%，这将为尼日利亚水产养殖增加42,273吨鱼。比较分析表明，COVID-19 期间的鲶鱼生产商和南部地区的生产商技术效率更高。提出了依赖于管理的决定因素的影响。除了管理方法之外，通过使用质量投入也可以显着提高技术效率。在此基础上，提出了尼日利亚成功生产鲶鱼的措施建议。