Open AccessEffects of Culture Area, Stocking Density, and Shrimp and Fish Polyculture on the Cost Efficiency of Hard Clam, Meretrix meretrix , Culture: A Case Study of Hard Clam Farms in Yunlin, Taiwan
Author(s) -
Huang JungFu,
Chou MingTao,
Lee JieMin,
Cheng YungHsin
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of the world aquaculture society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.655
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1749-7345
pISSN - 0893-8849
DOI - 10.1111/jwas.12289
Subject(s) - polyculture , stocking , shrimp , fishery , biology , hectare , allocative efficiency , milkfish , aquaculture , ecology , agriculture , fish <actinopterygii> , economics , neoclassical economics
Using the hard clam farms in Yunlin, Taiwan as examples, this study analyzes the effects of culture area, stocking density, and shrimp and fish polyculture on the cost efficiency ( CE ) of hard clam farming. A data envelopment analysis ( DEA ) is used to estimate the farms' technical efficiency ( TE ), allocative efficiency ( AE ), and CE values. The findings show that the mean TE , AE , and CE values of hard clam farms are 0.74, 0.57, and 0.43, respectively. The TE value is higher than the AE value, which indicates that cost inefficiency is mainly attributable to poor AE . Tobit regression results suggest that there are positive relationships between CE and both culture area and operator experience. Hard clam stocking density and age of the operators have negative effects on CE . Hard clam culture areas larger than 2 ha and a stocking density of 1.1–1.2 million hard clams per hectare have higher CEs than smaller culture areas and smaller or larger stocking densities. The use of sand shrimp, white shrimp, kuruma shrimp, and grass shrimp for polyculture and the use of milkfish and silver sea bream for polyculture are both associated with high CEs .