Can Catfish Aquaculture be Profitable in Farm Ponds?
| dc.creator | Dasgupta, Siddhartha | |
| dc.creator | Wurts, William | |
| dc.creator | Durborow, Robert | |
| dc.date | 2017-04-01T19:29:40Z | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-09T04:24:09Z | |
| dc.description | Extensive channel catfish farming is a means of utilizing farm ponds for aquaculture production for either supplementary income of home use. This involves stocking catfish at sufficiently low densities such that a pond is able to assimilate excess feed and fish wastes without needing supplemental aeration or chemicals to keep water quality from reaching toxic levels. This is "low-tech" aquaculture and requires little producer labor/management inputs. A mathematical model of extensive catfish culture in farm ponds was presented in this paper. This model used data from Kentucky where part-time producers, with a minimum of aquaculture experience and time for pond management, are involved in culturing catfish for retail/live markets. Results of this model showed that the optimal strategy would be to stock fish at densities up to 3,000/ha/yr (1,200/ac/yr). Other results showed that breakeven prices were less than $2.20/kg ($1.00/lb), a popular retail price for whole catfish. Hence, this paper concluded that small-scale aquaculture is both feasible and profitable in farm ponds, provided the producer had access to retail markets for the product. | |
| dc.identifier | doi:10.22004/ag.econ.34893 | |
| dc.identifier | https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/34893/files/sp07da02.pdf | |
| dc.identifier | http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/34893 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/123456789/549390 | |
| dc.language | eng | |
| dc.publisher | ||
| dc.source | http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/34893 | |
| dc.title | Can Catfish Aquaculture be Profitable in Farm Ponds? | |
| dc.type | Text |