The study assessed the determinants of market outlet among catfish farmers in
Kwara State, Nigeria. The research was based on reports of withdrawal of farmers
from fish farming to other agricultural enterprises. A three-stage random sampling
technique was used to select 250 respondents this was because they were few in
number and scattered all over the state with the inflow of river Niger. Data was
collected using structured questionnaires. The data generated from the survey were
analysed using descriptive statistics and a multinomial logistic regression model. The
descriptive analysis revealed that the average fish farming experience stood at about
7 years and 64.8% of them did not receive any form of credit whereas, the average
production capacity per cycle stood at about 2300 catfish and the average distance to
the market was 5.06 kilometres. Also, the majority (41.6%) of the catfish farmers sold
their product at the local market, 31.2% at urban markets, and 27.2% at the farm gate.
The factors influencing the choice of the local market were having at least secondary
education (p<0.05) and distance to the market (p<0.1) which were negative and
significant, whereas, the choice of the urban market outlets were influenced by
gender (p<0.05), age of the farmer (p<0.1), and having at least secondary education
(p<0.01) which were positive and significant while, distance to the market (p<0.1) was
negative and significant. The major problems associated with catfish farming in the
study area were identified to include; capital (71.8%), high cost of feeds (62.1%), and
high cost of transportation (60.5%) amongst others. The study, therefore, recommend
that credit facilities should be provided and training on fish farming should be
organized to encourage the enterprise.
Keywords: Market, Catfish, Farmers, Multinomial logistic regression
