Humans and fish have been inextricably linked for millennia, not only because fish is an important source of animal protein, the production and trade of which provide millions with livelihood and food security. Aquaculture is regarded as a lucrative and important endeavor in terms of income generation and supply of animal protein to the majority of population. Milkfish (Chanos chanos ) is an important cultured fish in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly in the Philippines, Indonesia and Taiwan. It is the major species farmed in the Philippines, contributing more than 80% of the total national brackish water pond production annually. Further, Pangasinan is the leading producer of milkfish in the country.
In aquaculture, s tochastic frontier production functions have been used to determine economic efficiency. T he frontier production function (FPF) has been most commonly applied to carp, tilapia, and shrimp. F ishpond operators were selected as respondents in the study to assess the level of technical efficiency and its determinants such as technology use, use of inputs, and efficiency of milkfish production in fishponds in Pangasinan.
The salient features of inputs and output variables involved in the stochastic production frontier and of farm-specific variables included in the technical efficiency function. Fe eds, stocking density and area were the important material inputs used by most of the farmers.
Figure 1. Average technical efficiency of Milkfish Production in Pangasinan is 0.82 or 82 percent (Minimun = 0.4733286; Maximum = 0.9555722)