The Comparative Analysis of Catfish Production Among Loan and Non-users in Ogbomoso Rural Settlement, Ogbomoso, Oyo State Raufu M.O.*, Dudubo T.O. 1Dept of Agricultural Economics and Extension, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Nigeria *E-mail: oyedapo1971@yahoo.com
Abstract The focus of this study is to determine the effect loan Utilization among Catfish farmers in Ogbomoso Rural Settlement in Ogbomoso. The rural settlement was purposively selected because it comprises of Catfish farmers that obtained loan. A well-structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data. A stratified random sampling technique was used. The farmers were stratified into loan and non-loan catfish farmers. 40 respondents each were randomly sampled from each stratum making a total of 80 respondents. Descriptive Analysis, which comprises of frequency and percentage distribution, was adopted to investigate the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents and budgetary analysis was used to determine the profitability of the catfish business. The effect of loan utilization was measured using multiple regression analysis as inferential statistics. F ⁃ Ratio analysis was used to determine whether or not there is productivity differential between the loan and non loan respondents. The results show that there are more women (30%) fish farmers who obtain loan than the non-loan fish farmers (7.5%) but majority of the farmers in both categories within 31‐40 years age bracket while loan receivers had more (75%) extension visit than their non-loan counterparts (55%). Non-loan farmers made more profit than the loaned fish farmers because the later expended more cost on fixed items than the non-loan farmers. For the loaned farmers extension visit cost of fingerlings and total fixed cost are all statistically significant and are all positively related to Y except for total fixed cost. Likewise for the non-loan farmers though non of the variable were statistically significant but variables for cost of fingerlings, extension visit and total fixed cost have the same signs with those of loaned farmers. Extension Agents as well as farmers should be encouraged to attend seminars and trainings on modern methods of catfish production that are more cost efficient for better income from production. Top Keywords Agricultural loan, Catfish production, Productivity differential. Top |