Aquaculture Socio-economics Lecture Notes PDF

# Aquaculture Socio-economics ## Dr. Hala Khalil Lecturer of Aquaculture - The image depicts a slide with a title: “Aquaculture Socio-economics”, by Dr. Hala Khalil. There are three images: 1) fishermen pulling a net up from the water in a small boat. 2) a crab with dollars piled under it. 3) A wo...

# Aquaculture Socio-economics ## Dr. Hala Khalil Lecturer of Aquaculture - The image depicts a slide with a title: “Aquaculture Socio-economics”, by Dr. Hala Khalil. There are three images: 1) fishermen pulling a net up from the water in a small boat. 2) a crab with dollars piled under it. 3) A woman holding a fishing net in a fish farm. # Part 4: Specific Functions of an Economic System 1. What to produce 2. Organization of production 3. Output distribution 4. Short-run rationing 5. Economic maintenance and growth ## (1) What to Produce: determined by market - Must know wants and needs of the community and to what degree they should be satisfied. - Must have a system of establishing value to the community and reflects desires: **price** - Value determined by price (sometimes) - Urgency means higher prices! - This situation tells us what to produce based on a market, not what ought to be produced. ## (2) Organization of Production: organized by price - Involves drawing resources from industries producing goods that consumers value less and channeling them into industries producing goods the community favors (fish ofal into dog food). - Also involves efficient use of resources by individual firms. - Production organized by price - Inputs used to achieve maximum economic efficiency ## (3) Output Distribution: How big a piece of the pie do I get?? - Distribution of product is simultaneous with decisions of what to produce and organization of production. - Individuals with higher income obtain larger shares of product. - Income distribution depends upon the distribution of resource ownership. - Improper channelling of resources is self-correcting. - Income differences from differences in resource ownership are not self-correcting - Society can impose forced corrections: taxes, subsidies, institutional changes ## (4) Short-run Rationing: making supplies last - Here, the economic system makes provisions for rationing commodities over the time period during which supplies cannot be changed. - Known as "short-run" or "market period" rationing. - Supply must be spread over consumers. - Supply must be stretched over a time period until the next harvest. ## (5) Economic Maintenance and Expansion - Every economy must maintain and expand its productive capacity. - **Maintenance:** keeping the productive power operating through provisions for depreciation. - **Expansion:** continuous increase in kind and quantity of the nation's resources, together with continuous technological improvement. # Part 5: Aquacultural Economics - The aquacultural economist applies the analytical models of traditional economics to aquacultural problems. - Old definition of aquaculture: the science and art of fish farming. - Sophisticated production techniques, products marketed all over the world. - Aquacultural inputs and storage are becoming a major portion of our economy. ## Aquacultural Economics - Aquaeconomics was originally begun as a study of costs and returns for ag farms. - Mainly deal **with** management problems. - Modern field is composed of specialists who study marketing, farm management, finance, accounting, product transportation, farm cooperatives and the law. - Many study more than one aspect. ## Aquacultural Economics - Both major areas of economics (micro - and macro-) have applications in aquaculture. - The problems of production on individual farms are important. - However, aquaculture is not really independent of the other areas of the economy. - Budgetary decisions made by the Federal Reserve Board send shock waves back through the agribusiness marketing system to every farmer. ## Aquaculture Economics - Aquaculture economics, in specific, deals with rearing of desirable aquatic organisms under controlled or semi-controlled conditions for economic or social benefits (cheaper protein). ## Aquacultural Economics - The logic of economics is not the whole of aquacultural economics. - To be effective the ag economist must also understand the biological nature of aquacultural production. - If you study the costs of fish farming enterprises, you must also understand the technical management problems of animal husbandry. - The best practitioners of the art of aquaeconomics are those who both understand theory and know how to use it in a practical setting. # Goal of Aquaculture Economics - Widely accepted goal: increase efficiency in aquaculture. - Basic goal: produce fish, shrimp, etc. **without** wasting resources! - To meet this goal, the required output must be produced with the smallest amounts of scarce resources. - Goal: increasing efficiency, profitability, and efficiency of resource use in all society.