Influence of Economic Factors On Production Of Fresh Water Fish In Manyatta Subcounty, Embu County

Abstract

Aquaculture is the farming of aquatic animals such as crustaceans, finfish and mollusks and aquatic plants in a controlled environment. The global demand for fish for human consumption is increasing but there has been a decline in the capture fish industry overtime. The research objectives intended to establish the influence of cost of inputs on fish production, to assess the influence of markets availability on fish farming and analyze the influence of credit accessibility on fish farming. From literature review, it was observed that availability of access to credit positively influence production of fresh water fish as there will be adequate capital to run the fish farming, it’s also observed that easy access to market and its availability influences and encourage more people to venture into the aquatic industry and proper and efficient use of the limited inputs to maximize on output also has a positive influence on production as when the good combination of inputs are used to maximize on output. The research study design was a cross-sectional survey, which collects data at a point in time. The target population of 154,632 households in Manyatta Sub County was used. The study used a sample size of 50 respondents who were selected using a random sampling technique which gave every element equal chance of choice. The sample size was arrived at using the formula by Yamane. A questionnaire was used to collect data from the fish farmers. From the findings there was a negative relationship between the cost of inputs and fish production per pond and a strong positive relationship between fish production per pond on both market availability and access to credit. The study recommended that the government should offer subsidies to the farmers in purchase of inputs like feeds and create an enabling environment for fish market.