A STUDY ON CONSUMERS ACCEPTABILITY ON FRESH AND SMOKED CATFISH. A RESEARCH PROJECT TOPICS ON FISHERY AND AQUACULTURE

posted on September 18, 2018

A STUDY ON CONSUMERS ACCEPTABILITY ON FRESH AND SMOKED CATFISH. A RESEARCH PROJECT TOPICS ON FISHERY AND AQUACULTURE

ABSTRACT

Fish is a major source of food for humans, providing significant portion of the protein intake in the diet of large proportion of the people, particularly so in developing countries. Fish is less tough and more digestible compared to beef, chicken and mutton. Moreover, has little or no religious rejection that gives it an advantage over pork and beef (Kumolu-Johnson and Ndimele, 2011). The African catfish, Clarias gariepinus Burchell (1822) is a remarkable and fascinating species, as it is extremely hardy and withstands adverse environmental condition and habitat instability. It is hardy and does not easily succumb to disease and feeds all types of biowastes .The fish can efficiently assimilate a wide variety of animal and plant proteins. Growth of this fish under natural condition is fast. The predatory, cannibalism and voracious feeding habit of this fish catch the impression of the farmers to culture them in natural inland freshwater bodies. Moreover the faster growth rate and relative higher market price of this fish has been luring the famer to take up its culture.

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

The African catfish, Clarias gariepinus Burchell (1822) is a remarkable and fascinating species, as it is extremely hardy and withstands adverse environmental condition and habitat instability. It is hardy and does not easily succumb to disease and feeds all types of biowastes .The fish can efficiently assimilate a wide variety of animal and plant proteins. Growth of this fish under natural condition is fast. The predatory, cannibalism and voracious feeding habit of this fish catch the impression of the farmers to culture them in natural inland freshwater bodies. Moreover the faster growth rate and relative higher market price of this fish has been luring the famer to take up its culture.

Fish production and consumption

In recent years, capture fishery production has been flat, at around 90 million tonnes per year, while aquaculture has continued to show sustained growth – currently around 6.5 percent a year – faster than all other food sectors (FAO 2012, FAO 2013 and FAO 2014). In 2011 it amounted to 62.7 million tonnes. Some gains in capture fisheries might be possible by adopting better management through an eco-system approach, but significant increases are unlikely. However, it has been estimated that if all inputs were available, aquaculture could provide 16 – 47 million additional tonnes of fish by 2030 (Hall et al., 2013). A comparison of capture fisheries and aquaculture production in the top five aquaculture producing countries in 2011. It is interesting to note that in four out of the five top aquaculture producers the output from aquaculture exceeds that from capture fisheries. Only in Indonesia, a vast archipelago is capture more than aquaculture.

A total of 156 million tonnes of fish was produced from all sources in 2011, of which 132 million tonnes was available for direct human consumption. In 2014 alone, Nigeria imported 8000 metric tons of fish and thereby employing foreign producers to feed Nigeria thus depleting our hard earned resources and foreign exchange.

Gomna and Rana (2015) reported an annual fish consumption of 5.8 and 9Kg/caput years to meat in Lagos state in the southwest Nigeria. Despite the fact that fish is the most consumed source of animal protein in Nigeria, the level of consumption is still far below the world average, as reported by The Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statitical Database (FAOSTAT, 2005). In addition, substantial proportion of the fish consumed in Nigeria is still being imported, hence the need to expand local production to meet the increasing demand and save the country from available negative balance payment.