Farmers at the workshop were trained on the topics: Strategic management techniques for catfish farming; Practical fish processing as a business; Sustainable financing for Aquaculture and; Management of diseases of Aquaculture.
The success in African catfish farming can be linked to the successful development of artificial propagation protocols in the 1980's and its substantial contribution to aquaculture development can be traced to mid-1990's as it is reflected on the FAO FishStat, (Figure 3) [6].
Several scientific advances are being developed and incorporated into catfish farming. ARS scientists developed a set of molecular markers for DNA fingerprinting to efficiently identify catfish species and parentage.
Most Mississippians can tell you in detail how often farm-raised catfish end up on their dinner tables or the value of catfish farming to their state's economy.
Also, the respondents spent more on feeds ([??] 124/kg) than other inputs associated with catfish farming. Respondents' ages ranged from 19 to 78 with the mean of 47.25 and were male dominated (89.5%).
In 2005, the total economic impact was 1ドル.4 billion, with more than 13,000 people working just in catfish farming and related industries, said Madan Dey, professor of aquaculture economics and marketing at UAPB.
Closer to home, in the poverty-stricken Mississippi Delta where catfish farming supports 10,000 jobs, one farmer spent 500,000ドル on fish feed last year.