Economic analysis of shrimp culture in Thailand

Date
1979
Authors
Tokrisna, Ruangrai Manyanondh
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Abstract
Given high prices and rapidly increasing demand with a tendency for decreasing catches from the sea, this study attempts to provide an evaluation for production performance of shrimp farming and to provide information useful for policies to increase production from shrimp farming in Thailand. This was accomplished basically by estimating a shrimp farm production function from data obtained by sample survey in 1977. The survey covered four provinces (Samut-prakarn, Bangkok, Samut-sakorn, and Samut-songkram) along the coastal line of the inner Gulf of Thailand. A Cobb-Douglas production function was selected as the functional form, hypothesizing that production is a function of four main inputs (i.e., land, family labor, hired labor, and capital inputs), natural abundance, and management factors. Since natural characteristics play an important role in shrimp farming (e.g. in determining natural seed and feed abundance) and these characteristics vary among different regions, it was clear that production relations could be expected to vary between areas. There being no way to measure these natural differences (e.g., type of soil, type of tide and current, water salinity, temperature, wind, sunshine, etc.) and observing that the conditions were more or less the same over rather broad sub-regions, a set of dummy variables for different shrimp farming locations was included to capture the important differences in natural and physical conditions. The type of farm occupation (being full-time shrimp farm or part-time) and level of the farmer's education were included to take care o~ management factors. In spite of the favorable natural conditions, Thai shrimp farming was, in a sense, "inefficient" in using the resources at hand. This inefficiency was found both within the typical farm in each region and between regions. The inefficiency within farms involved both an inefficient combination of inputs at the output produced and producing at rates at which the values of marginal product of all inputs exceeded the cost of all inputs. Inefficiency between regions involved using movable inputs in one region even though their value of marginal product was much higher in other regions. However, it is not clear that this inefficiency could be fully linked with the farmers' management ability since some factors were beyond their control; i.e., lack of appropriate land and a limitation of investment funds. "Inefficiency" could also be a result of lagging adjustment to the rapid increase in demand for shrimp. Given the resources now available, efficient resource allocation (between and within farms) could increase production from these farms by at least one-third of the present production level. The increase could be even greater if the farmers did not have constraints on input utilization. However, the extent of any actual increase will depend on the extent to which "ideal" conditions are satisfied when the "inefficiencies" are removed. In sum, shrimp farms are small-scale and family-oriented. To promote more production, credits, infrastructure and other necessary facilities must be provided. The prospect for development of Thai shrimp farming is good provided the government takes steps to provide adequate infrastructure and facilities and to induce more farmers into this field.
Description
Photocopy of typescript.
Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1979.
Bibliography: leaves 112-115.
Microfiche.
x, 115 leaves ill. 29 cm
Keywords
Shrimp culture -- Thailand, Shrimp fisheries -- Economic aspects -- Thailand
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Theses for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (University of Hawaii at Manoa). Economics; no. 1282
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