Tilapia is an internationally farmed trade species recommended by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, which is promoted and farmed in more than 100 countries and regions. In China, tilapia culture is a promising aquaculture business and it occupies an important position in global tilapia culture. In this study, profitability analysis was used to analyze the production costs and economic benefits of different farming sizes among the main tilapia-producing areas of China. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to analyze the impact of uncertainty factors on net profit of tilapia farming. Details of the costs and benefits of tilapia culture in China could support financial planning by fish farmers. The economic profit indices measured in this study comprised the total profit, gross income, profit margin, and benefit-cost ratios. The results indicated that large farms has the highest cost and the highest cost-profit margin among the three categories, and the small farms has the lowest cost and profit margin, while the cost and profit margin of medium size are between the large and small sizes. Sensitivity analysis shows that the net profit of tilapia is very flexible to the change of price, feed, rent, and fixed cost, of which price elasticity was the highest, followed by the feed, rent, and fixed cost. According to the problems existing in the tilapia farming, some policy suggestions were put forward for sustainable tilapia culture.

Economic profitability of tilapia farming in China

The economic efficiency of small-scale tilapia farms in Guangxi, China were analyzed by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The mean technical (under CRS and VRS), allocative, and economic efficiencies of small-scale tilapia farms were 0.89, 0.97, 0.71 and 0.68, respectively. Efficiency analysis revealed that inefficient farms would have needed to increase production output levels by 32% to perform as well as the best practice farms. The decomposition of the economic efficiency showed that allocative inefficiency was the primary cause of economic inefficiency. There were positive relationships between economic efficiency and age, culture mode and period through Tobit regression, while experience, family members, and technology support had negative effects on economic efficiency. Lower input levels of feed quantity may help to increase the tilapia farming economic efficiency.

Economic efficiency of small-scale tilapia farms in Guangxi, China

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Aquaculture Economics and Management on 14 Jan 2020, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/ https://doi.org/10.1080/13657305.2019.1710876 .

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Data envelopment analysis for analyzing technical efficiency in aquaculture: The bootstrap methods

An application of data envelopment analysis with the double bootstrapping technique to analyze cost and technical efficiency in aquaculture: Do credit constraints matter?

The inverse relationship between farm size and productivity is one of the most debated findings in agricultural productivity researches of developing countries. Aquaculture industries of Bangladesh have been expanded tremendously but most of the aquaculture farms are small and their productivity is not as high as expected. This paper has explored the relationships among farm size, productivity and efficiency of pangas fish farms. A survey was conducted on 125 farmers by direct interviewing in Mymensingh district of Bangladesh.  Stochastic frontier production function was carried out to estimates the level of technical efficiency and polynomial regression was employed to show the relationship among farm size productivity and efficiency in pangas fish farming. In general, pangas fish farming was found to be profitable, where the large size farms were more profitable than the small. Feed and salt had highly significant and positive effects on productivity, while human labor had negative influences. Larger farms were found to be more productive and technically efficient than the smaller one, and the more productive farms were found to be more efficient. These findings could be justifiable by the fact that the large size farms enjoy more financial opportunities, management and marketing facilities in commercial mode and all these facilities help them to enhance productivity and efficiency. \nJ. Bangladesh Agril. Univ. 16(3): 513–522, December 2018

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Farm size, productivity and efficiency nexus: The case of pangas fish farming in Bangladesh

Polyculture is commonly practiced in pond aquaculture where several fish species are reared together, creating a multioutput production structure. This study examines the technical (TE), allocative (AE) and economic efficiency (EE) of the most widely practiced fish-producing polyculture system in the coastal area of Yancheng city, China, which deals mostly with the production of crucian carp alongside silver carp and bighead carp. Data envelopment analysis is used to measure the efficiencies, while Tobit regression is applied to identify the factors affecting efficiencies. The estimated TE, AE and EEs are 0.92, 0.96, and 0.88 respectively. Crucian carp polyculture is characterized by moderate technical inefficiencies, necessitating the development and dissemination of new technology to increase the productivity of these farmers. On average, small ponds were found to be more technically efficient while large ponds were found to have higher allocative and scale efficiencies. Additionally, Tobit regression revealed a positive effect between farm size and efficiencies. These findings provide some support for the current standardized pond program in China. The use of hired labor decreased technical efficiencies of fish farmers. Fingerling size had a significant positive effect on efficiencies. In order to manage constantly expanding crucian carp polyculture, farmers should be provided with information on sizable fingerlings, economic pond sizes, and employee supervision, among other factors.

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Quanzhong Wang

Papers

Economic Efficiency of Crucian carp (Carassius auratus gibelio) Polyculture Farmers in the Coastal Area of Yancheng City, China