Analysis of Practice of Cage Aquaculture System in TohoTodougba Lagoon, Southern Benin (West Africa)

Abstract

Aquacultural techniques for floating cage are unknown in Benin that limited the agricultural policies to increase the fish production. This study aims to clarify that situation. Indeed, a questionnaire has been developed and computed in KoBocollect application. The survey’s team is 19 fish farmers. The survey took place in the first quarter of 2019 and concerns technical data. Descriptive statistics were presented and PCA was used for statistical analysis. It was concluded that 89.47% of the fish farmers are men and only 03.30% are aquacultural technicians. In addition, it is noticed that 604 cages are operating on the lagoon with 78.95% of the fish farmers who are owners of 01 to 24 cages and 05.26% own more than 100 cages. The most produced fish species is tilapia (78%). Furthermore, 63.16% of the farmer feed their fish twice per day while 26.32% feed three times per day. Tilapia yield varies between 836 kg and 1,220.22 kg compared to Clarias yield which ranges from 825 kg to 850 kg. The simple rate of return is 1.52 and 1.77 for tilapia and Clarias respectively. Density, feeding frequency, year of experience, number of cages and production cycle time influences yield.