Competitiveness of Fish Farming in Lagos State, Nigeria: An Application of Policy Analysis Matrix

Abstract:

This study assessed the competitiveness of commercial fish farming in Nigeria using the Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) on a sample of 84 fish farmers in Lagos State, Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select the number of respondents in the study area. Both primary and secondary data were utilized for the analysis. The study employed two fish production outputs including smoked and fresh fish products. The PAM results revealed that both products were both privately and socially profitable. However, smoked fish was more profitable of the two products. Furthermore, results revealed that outputs from the production outputs (smoked and fresh fish) are taxed as revealed by the nominal protection coefficients on output and input. This was further confirmed by the Effective protection coefficient (EPC) and Subsidy ratio to producers (SRP) values. The study recommends that government should ensure a level of policy intervention in aquaculture production in which fish farmers are given incentives that will incentivize them to improve productivity and the quality of fish produced and processed. One of these incentives can be in the form of provision of improved farm technologies for production and processing in order to enhance competitiveness.