01712naa a2200181 a 450000100080000000500110000800800410001910000110006024501120007126000090018352011290019265300110132165300080133265300170134065300160135765300190137377301380139210868482012-09-12       2006    bl uuuu     u00u1 u    #d1 aEpagri  aAssessing fish production efficiency in ponds under the DEA approachbAn integrated polyculture case study.  c2006  aThis paper is a first attempt to assess aquaculture efficiency on an individual pond basis using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique. While DEA is commonly employed in firm efficiency studies, the main novelty behind our approach is that instead of firms we treat each pond as a decision making unit (DMU). In fact operating variables such as fish stocking, feeding and labor are collected on a pond by pond basis, rather than for the whole farm. Detailed data were obtained from extension agent (EPAGRI) for output (profit) and input (seed, feed, labor, and manure) in 87 integrated fish polyculture runs distributed in 18 farms located in the Alto Vale do Itajai Region, Brazil. Main fish species stocked in the polyculture ponds is Nile tilapia (86%), with the remaining 14% being divided with at least 2 out of 4 of the following fish groups: a) common carp; b) filter feeding carps; c) grass carp; and d) catfish. To reduce production costs, vertical integration with commercial swine production is accomplished throughout the production cycle. Formula feed is introduced to the ponds 2 months after stocking.  aBrazil  aDEA  aFish culture  aPolyculture  aSanta Catarina  tIn: WORLD AQUACULTURE MEETING - AQUA 2006, Florence, Italy. Abstracts... Baton ROuge, Lousiana, USA: World Aquaculture Society, 2006.