Abstract

The study analyses the resource use efficiency in catfish production in Oyo state, Nigeria. Primary data were collected with structured questionnaire from one hundred and five catfish farmers selected from three Local Governments in Oyo State using multistage sampling. Frequency tables, percentages and means were used to present the socio economics profile of the respondent. Result showed that majority of the respondents were male (94.8%), with the mean age of 39 years, majority (83.3%) of the respondents were married with a mean household size of 5 persons. Also majority (67.8%) had tertiary education and an average of 8 years of farming experience, cost and return analysis of catfish production in the study area revealed average variable cost production as N 1,979,017.98 with the cost of fish feed accounting for 72.21% of variable cost of production. The result also revealed that although several inputs were being used by the farmers. The resource use efficiency result indicates that quantity of fingerlings; fuel and labour used were underutilized. However, the findings show that amount of feed used was over utilized since the efficiency estimate for feed is less than one. The finding of this study implies that increasing the usage of fingerlings, fuel and labour would improve the efficiency of these inputs. The study therefore concludes that Catfish farmers in the study area should be encouraged by extension agents through technical training on production techniques or practices that will improve their productivity especially in those areas of inefficiency and underutilization of inputs.