Files

Abstract

Fish supplies more than 87% of the animal protein in Nigeria, and more than 90% of coastal communities depend solely on fishing and fisheries related activities for their survival. Available information however, shows that Nigeria’s inland water bodies are producing less than 13% of their estimated fishery potential. And domestic demand for fish has never been met by dependence on output from available aquatic sources. Nigeria therefore imports over US$ 200 million worth of frozen fish per annum. The capacity of artisanal fisheries to play its role of bridging this food gap, providing employment and generating income, particularly for the coastal communities in Nigeria, will largely depend on the adoption of appropriate management strategies that will ensure efficiency and sustainability given their debilitating oil pollution environment. This study employed a Cobb- Douglas stochastic frontier cost function to measure the level of economic efficiency and its determinants among these households. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 160 respondents from whom input-output data, prices and socioeconomic characteristics were obtained. The results of the analysis showed that individual levels of economic efficiency ranged from 0.10 – 0.96 with a mean of 0.68. While age, household size and number of fishing trips made in a week decreased, access to credit, membership of co-operative society, and oil spill increased, significantly, the respondents’ level of economic inefficiency. These observations particularly suggest that the farmers were yet to harness the potentials of farm credit and membership of cooperative societies in their farm business, perhaps as a result of poverty. We recommend training workshops and seminars to remedy this. There is also the need for policies that could compel oil companies to minimize oil spill within the farmers’ fishing environment. The adverse effects of oil spill on the environment and the economic politics of forcing oil companies to deal with it are global problems that the international community could assist poorer nations find ways out of it.

Details

PDF

Statistics

from
to
Export
Download Full History