Economic Assessment of Integrated Fish Farming (Fish-Rice-Piggery) in Sierra Leone

Abstract

The present study evaluates the profitability and environmental effect of integrated fish cum rice and piggery production at Njala University, Sierra Leone. The research carried out between June and November, 2014 consists of the pigsty (2.5m × 11m), a maggoty and integrated pond (395.2m2) sown with 0.94kg NERICA 19 rice at spacing of 20cm inter - rows and 5cm intra - rows. The pond was stocked with Clarias gariepinus juveniles (mean weight 25.6± 1.78g) at the density of 4.8fish per m2.Water quality parameters viz., temperature, pH, Dissolved oxygen, NO3-N, NH3/NH4, hardness and alkalinity were determined in the pond and were found to be within the recommended range for the culture of tropical fish. Economic analysis of the adaptive research gave a negative incremental benefit and Net Present Value (NPV) in both the first and second year of production. The sensitivity analysis evaluation shows that the enterprise is fairly sensitive to price fluctuation (-46.02%) and highly sensitive to survival rate of the fish and the scale of production of the pigs. Increasing scale of production and selling at market price will greatly enhance profitability and short term payback of costs.