Characterization of fish farming practices and performance: Baseline study and implications for accelerating aquaculture development in Ghana

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dc.creatorRagasa, Catherine
dc.creatorAgyakwah, Seth K.
dc.creatorAsmah, Ruby
dc.creatorMensah, Emmanuel Tetteh-Doku
dc.creatorAmewu, Sena
dc.date2020-04-01
dc.date2024-05-22T12:14:48Z
dc.date2024-05-22T12:14:48Z
dc.date.accessioned2026-06-27T15:03:45Z
dc.descriptionOver the past decade, the aquaculture sector in Ghana has experienced tremendous growth—driven mainly by large-scale cage farms—but it has been unclear how the rural poor have shared in this growth. A research project has been initiated to help diagnose, design, and test interventions for better inclusion of the rural poor, women, and youth in the tilapia value chain. This report describes the baseline data on 603 small-scale tilapia farmers in Ghana. The data collected during two-hour face-to-face interviews during May–July 2019 are disaggregated by socioeconomic indicators, gender, and age group. Baseline data show that 9 percent of farm managers and owners were women, and an additional 9 percent of farms engaged women in some decision-making. Moreover, women contributed 16 percent of family labor and 5 percent of hired labor on farms. Youth represented 14 and 24 percent of owners and managers, respectively, but contributed 68 percent of the total family and hired labor on farms. A large majority of managers and owners had at least high school education, with a third of owners and a quarter of managers attaining at least a college degree. In Brong Ahafo and Ashanti regions especially, most farmers engaged mainly in crop farming and non-farm businesses as their main livelihood, with fish farming as a small contributor to overall household income and livelihood. Farmers in all regions had poor record-keeping and management practices and low compliance with sanitation, fish health, and food safety standards. A wide variety of input usage, management practices, and performance was observed among fish farms. As a result, the profitability of fish farms was also wide-ranging, between –12.00 and 46.00 cedi per m2, with an average of 8.82 cedi per m2. Despite wide variability in production and profits, the majority of farmers experienced positive profits. On average, a farmer received a profit of 2.4 cedi per kilogram of tilapia produced or a 27 percent profit margin. These encouraging figures indicate that farmers who adopt good aquaculture practices can achieve respectable profits.
dc.formatapplication/pdf
dc.identifierhttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/143519
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/123456789/93431
dc.languageen
dc.publisherInternational Food Policy Research Institute
dc.relationhttps://doi.org/10.2499/1046080791
dc.relationhttps://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133804
dc.relationhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2021.737476
dc.rightsOpen Access
dc.sourceRagasa, Catherine; Agyakwah, Seth K.; Asmah, Ruby; Mensah, Emmanuel Tetteh-Doku; and Amewu, Sena. 2020. Characterization of fish farming practices and performance: Baseline study and implications for accelerating aquaculture development in Ghana. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1937. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133772.
dc.subjectvalue chains
dc.subjecttilapia
dc.subjectseed systems
dc.subjectcapacity development
dc.subjectyouth
dc.subjecthousehold income
dc.subjectaquaculture
dc.subjectinclusion
dc.subjectlivelihoods
dc.subjectfish culture
dc.subjectpoverty
dc.subjectfishery production
dc.subjectrural areas
dc.subjectwomen
dc.titleCharacterization of fish farming practices and performance: Baseline study and implications for accelerating aquaculture development in Ghana
dc.typeWorking Paper

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Instituto Internacional de Investigación sobre Políticas Alimentarias (IFPRI)