Technical efficiency of African catfish production in Nigeria: An analysis involving input quality and COVID-19 effects

The technical efficiency of the African catfish production in Nigeria was assessed. A total of 609 farms were sampled, and 1,118 operations were recorded covering both the pre-COVID and COVID periods. A translog stochastic frontier modeling approach was used to simultaneously assess the technical efficiencies and the determinants of technical inefficiency of the catfish farmers. The mean technical efficiency for the catfish production in Nigeria is 85.4% indicating a scope of increasing production by 14.6% given the current technological state, which could contribute an additional 42,273 metric tons of fish to Nigeria's aquaculture. Comparative analysis showed that catfish producers during the COVID-19 period and producers from the Southern region were more technically efficient. The effect of management-dependent determinants is presented. Beyond management approaches, technical efficiency is seen to be improved significantly through the use of quality inputs. Based on these, measures for successful catfish production in Nigeria are recommended.