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IMPACT OF SUPPLY-SIDE MARKET PARTICIPATION ON PROFIT OF CATFISH FARMERS IN DELTA CENTRAL AGRICULTURAL ZONE, DELTA STATE, NIGERIA
Abstract
In small or less developed markets it is difficult to identify market opportunities, poor market access, distance covered to market farm produce and the decision to participate due to high transportation cost. Thus, evaluation of market participation on profit is based on an observational study instead of an experimental design with conditional exogeneity. What is needed is an estimation technique that corrects for self-selection based on observed characteristics and/or unobserved characteristics where market participation decision is assumed to be endogenous. This study, therefore, estimated the effect of supply-
side market participation on profit amongst small-holder catfish farm families in Delta Central Agricultural Zone of Delta State, Nigeria using the endogenous switching regression (ESR) model on data collected from a random sample of 272 catfish farmers. The results showed that there are unobserved self-selection and heterogeneous effects between market participant and non-participant groups given the same catfish production control variables. In addition, catfish farmers are more likely to participate in fish marketing with increased marketable surplus, smaller household size, more education, more experience in fish farming, younger the household-head, more fish output and married male household-head. Among the catfish farmers, non-participants in catfish market earn less than a random catfish farmer would have earned when not participating in fish markets. Catfish market participants earn higher profit than a random catfish farmer from the catfish farm sample would earn when participating in the market. On the average, the market participants have higher profit level than their counterparts who are non-participants in the market. The study, therefore, calls for policies aimed at improving access to catfish production information by catfish farmers for enhanced marketable surplus. Provision of inputs at subsidized prices especially targeted at younger fish farmers for increased marketable surplus in the study area.
