PROFITABILITY AND SOLVENCY ANALYSIS OF CATFISH (Clarias gariepenus) PRODUCTION IN JOS METROPOLIS, PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study on Profitability and Solvency Analysis of catfish production was conducted in Jos-Metropolis, Plateau State, Nigeria. Primary data was collected with the aid of questionnaires from 75 farmers drawn through multistage random sampling technique. Descriptive statistics, Farm Budgeting Technique and Profitability indices were used to achieve the three objectives. Major findings showed that 51% of the farmers were married having a mean household size of 5 persons and their mean age was 34years.Also,89% of respondents had formal education and 83 % of farmers have farming experience of 1-5years and a mean of 3 years, 87% of respondents had no access to extension service while 81% of respondents did not participate in any cooperative association. The result of the profitability analysis indicated that the average total revenue of N1,906,320.00, average total cost of N 738,013.35 per production cycle. The Gross Margin was N1,323,478.24 while the Net farm income was N1,168,306.65 per production cycle. The profitability index was 1.58 while the benefit-cost ratio for catfish was 2.58 which indicate business solvency. The study recommends that; To increase the profitability of catfish, farmers should adopt management strategies that will further increase this, farmers should take advantage of cooperatives for bulk purchase of inputs at reduced costs while Government should  increase the availability of extension officers to the catfish farmers.