Rural small-scale aquaculture: An assessment of farmers’ perceptions and technical efficiency in Masvingo, Zimbabwe

Figures & data

Figure 1. Agro-ecological Zones of Masvingo Province, (Vincent & Thomas, 1960).

Table 1. Household information

Characteristics	Descriptions	Combined districts N = 63	%
Active gender	Male Female	46 17	73 27
Household size	<4 4–9 >9	13 41 9	20.6 65.1 14.3
Age of fish farmer	< 26 years 26–36 36-46 46–56 >56	2 8 4 43 6	3.2 12.7 6.3 68.3 9.3

Figure 2. Farmers’ response on Education level attained.

Table 2. Fish farming information

Characteristics	Descriptions	Combined districts N = 63	%
Occupation of respondent	Fish farmer Formal employment None Fishermen	50 8 4 1	79.4 12.5 6.3 1.6
Fish farming experience	< 2 years 2–5 years > 5 years	12 42 9	19.0 66.7 14.3

Figure 3. Farmers’ responses on commonly used feed type.

Figure 4. Farmers’ responses on fish seed/fingerling source.

Table 3. Variables and descriptive statistics

Variable	Mean	Std. Dev.
Fish Production (kg/1000 m^2)	306	231.9826
Pond size (m^2)	1002	1157.353
Feed quantity (kg/growth season)	785	1025.634
Fingerling quantity (fingerlings/1000 m^2)	671	936.9124
Experience	2	1.67
Age	51	8.86
Humandays (days allocated to fish farming/month)	15	5.29

Figure 5. Framers’ perception on purpose of fishing farming.

Table 4. Maximum likelihood estimation of the production frontier with inefficiency model (dependent variable: fish production)

Model parameter	One stage procedure with production frontier and technical inefficiency mode
Variables	Coeff.	p-value
Production function (Technical efficiency) Intercept Feed quantity Pond size Fingerling quantity${\delta }^2={\delta }_{\mu }^2+{\delta }_v^2$$\gamma ={\delta }_{\mu }^2/{\delta }^2$Technical Inefficiency function Humandays (time allocated to fish farming) age education (educated = 1, not educated = 0) training (Trained = 1, Not trained = 0) occupation (farmer = 1, other = 0) gender (male = 1, female = 0) experience fingerlingsource (commercial = 1, noncommercial = 0) feedsource (commercial = 1, noncommercial = 0)	7.30 0.30 –2.35 2.07 1.80 1.00 2.13 –0.08 0.02 –2.15 0.60 0.65 1.73 0.81 –4.07 -2.83	0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.544 0.307 0.784 0.380 0.507 0.608 0.204 0.014 0.023 0.033

Vincent, V., & Thomas, R. G. (1960). An agricultural survey of Southern Rhodesia: Part I: Agroecological survey. Government Printer.

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