Economics of Smoked Farmed Catfish in Kainji Lake Basin, Nigeria

The study examined economics of smoke Catfish in Kainji Lake Basin, Nigeria. Random sampling technique was used to select 80 farmed-catfish processors from 20 communities. Primary data were collected through interview schedule and presented using percentages, mean, and 2-stage least square regression analysis. Results showed that the use of local oven (banda kilns) constitute the majority (at least 67%) of the method used in fish smoking. Roles such as gutting, folding, salting/brining, setting of fire and fish monitoring were mostly performed by the women, while the men and youths supply fire woods as well as fish arrangement on racks. The average gender ratio between the men, women and youths was 0.80,  indicating a near gender equality in terms of value of fixed assets, revenue, employees and wage. Profitability indicators showed that smoke fish  processing is a viable business with return on investment of 11.71 % for the men, 9.99 % for the women and 8.48 % for the youths respectively. The  major determinants of netincome were age, experience and initial capital investment. Hence, it is recommended that the processing industry  should be strengthened through subsidy on improved smoking kilns to enable processors produce high quality processed farmed catfish.