Economic Assessment of Cinnamon-Enriched Diets in African Catfish Hybrid (Clarias gariepinus ♀ × Heterobranchus bidorsalis ♂) Cultivation

Abstract

Abstract An assessment of the economic feasibility of including cinnamon in the diet of hybrid African catfish (Clarias gariepinus ♀ x Heterobranchus bidorsalis ♂) was conducted throughout a 56-day feeding trial. Two hundred and ten fingerlings of hybrid African catfish were acclimatised for one week, weighed, and assigned to five feeding regimens containing 0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0.% cinnamon. The diets were isonitrogenous at 38% and isolipidic at 12%. Each treatment was replicated three times, with 14 fish per replication. Fish were fed 5% of their body weight in two equal portions daily. An economic analysis was conducted utilising cost incidence, profit index, profitability ratio, and cost return analysis as analytical instruments. The study's results demonstrated the viability of utilising cinnamon, as evidenced by favourable gross margins and net returns. CTR exhibited the highest levels of BCR and ROR, whilst DT5 showed the lowest. No significant differences (p>0.05) were seen in the BCR of fish fed the CTR and cinnamon-treated diets, except DT5. As the concentration of cinnamon increased, the BCR and ROR decreased. This study concluded that producing African catfish hybrids (Clarias gariepinus ♀ x Heterobranchus bidorsalis ♂) with diets using cinnamon powder is economically viable. Reduced levels of cinnamon powder (0.5g/100g) in dietary formulations appear to yield economic returns similar to those of the control group. Keywords: Cost incidence; Profit index; Profitability ratio; Cost-return analysis.