Description

Abstract: This paper comparatively examined resource-use and technical (TE) efficiencies of aquaculture farms in the Southwest Nigeria. A total of 160 farms were randomly selected from four states across the region. Econometric applications of the stochastic frontier models provide measure of the farm’s technical efficiency. The results of regressions specified for the farms in each states, show that, elasticites for inputs, such as: size of the pond, feeds, labour, numbers of fingerling stocked, and costs of materials were positive and significant. This suggests that, the production functions monotonically increased with input from the study. The returns to scale estimates show that, an average farm in the states like, Ogun and Ondo exhibit increasing returns to scale, while similar numbers of farms in Osun and Ekiti states exhibit decreasing returns to scale. The results of marginal value product (MVP) show that, none of the farms across the states optimally used their variable inputs (MVPx =MFCx). Most farms were found to have underused (MVPx >MFCx) feeds and numbers of fingerlings stocked, as against overused (MVPx