Catfishes are the most popularly raised and consumed fish species in Nigeria. Given changes in the dynamics of the aquaculture sector, this paper estimated technical efficiency and factors contributing to it using data collected from 108 farmers stocking catfish in earthen ponds in the study area. Catfish aquaculture was found to be capital intensive. The most expensive item of total variable cost (TVC) was fish feeds which accounted for 61.4% and 67.8% of TVC in Ondo and Ogun States, respectively. There were no significant differences in cost items between the two States. Empirical analysis showed wide variations in predicted TEs across farms ranging from 48.4% to 77.2% in Ondo State and 45.4% to 82.1% in Ogun State with means of 64.0% and 67.0%, respectively. The results also indicate that coefficients of the quantity of feeds, total number of ponds, labour and number of times pond water is changed were positive and highly significant in catfish production. The inefficiency model revealed that age and farming experience coefficients (significant) and education level coefficient (not significant) were negative indicating that older and more experienced farmers tended to be less inefficient. The test of various null hypotheses showed that the inefficiency effects were related to the age, management pattern, years of experience and education level of farmers. The study identified the opportunities that exist for improving TE in the study area. Results of the analysis having implications for the aquaculture industry and for policy-makers were discussed.
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