Baseline Socio-Economic Study of Sustainable Integrated Pond Based Aquaculture with Rice and Poultry Production in North Central and South West, Nigeria

Abstract

Abstract

Integrated aquaculture production with livestock have achieved major breakthrough in Asia. Despite the several benefit associated with the production system, not much has been achieved in Nigeria. Abaseline study was carried out to assess the perception, levels of awareness and adoption of fish farmers of integrated pond based aquaculture with rice and poultry productions. The study area was the wet lands located in the North Central (NC) and South West (SW) agro-ecological zones of Nigeria. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected for the study. Athree stage stratified sampling method was used to select fish farmers from agro-ecological zones, states, and Agricultural Development Programme zones. Structured questionnires were administered to 100 and 200 registered fish farmers from NC and SW respectively. Descriptive statistics and linear regression were used for the analysis. Majority of fish farmers were male (82.2%), attained post secondary education (60.5 %), and a fair proportion had fish farming as their primary occupation (35.9%). Streams and rivers were the main source of water for fish culture in earthen pond, while most aquaculture production was rain fed, operating during the rainy season only. A fair proportion of the farmers (42.4%) were able to generate annual profit of more than N300, 000. The most preferred fish species for culture was the African catfish (Clarias species,). Sales at farm gate (51.1%) was the main form of disposing the cultured fish. Value addition by smoking was practiced by 28.6% of farmers. Half of the fish farmers (50.4%) favoured integrated pond based aquaculture with rice and poultry. Only 1.8% and 6.5% of fish farmers adopted rice and poultry integration respectively. No fish farmer adopted rice and poultry integrated aquaculture production simultaneously. Data analysis revealed that ecological zone, household size and willingness to adopt integrated aquaculture significantly (P< 0.05) influenced perception of fish farmers to integrated aquaculture. It was concluded that many fish farmers were not aware of integrated fish farming.