Optimal investment pathways for split-pond and intensively aerated catfish pond technologies.

The growing interest in intensive production practices makes it essential for catfish farmers to understand the best investment plan to transition an entire farm to new technologies. The 6-year mixed-integer-recursive programming model developed included traditional ponds, re-working existing ponds to make them more productive, converting traditional ponds to split ponds or adding additional aeration. Farm scenarios were developed that differed in the percentages of ponds that required reworking. The model selected primarily adoption of split ponds as the profit-maximizing strategy under current prices and unlimited availability of investment capital. Restricted availability of investment capital had a strong negative effect on those farms with greater percentages of older ponds that required re-working. Farmers that had reworked ponds more recently were able to invest the greater profits from the higher yields to transition more rapidly to new technologies. Larger farms could transition greater proportions of the farm to new technologies than could smaller farms. Higher feed prices and lower fish prices shifted the profit-maximization strategies from split ponds to intensively aerated systems and traditional single-batch systems. Results provide guidance to farms to make decisions related to the optimal investment pathway to transition farms to more productive and profitable technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]