ESTUARINE FISH FARMINU
201
The capital costs were recouped in two years. The rate of cropping
was 766 lbiacreiannum.
Plainly, where the rate of cropping is low, as it is in brackish-water
fishponds generally, only large acreages will make a viable industry,
able to amortize invested capital, pay a good rate of interest, and set
aside reserves for contingencies and expansion. The rate of production
of the Italian valli, for example, at, say 100 kgihectare, would not be
enough t o support a small-scale enterprise, but on the existing pond
areas of, say 500 hectares, income becomes 50 000 kg or more of wellpriced fish, which can, moreover, be sold under favourable conditions.
And as with the Javanese ponds, there are extras such as the sale of
wild duck in season, shooting rights, etc.
I n his account of the Russian limans, Ilin (1954) makes the same
point. The larger the acreage of ponds, the lower the prime cost of fish
production. One xentner of " chulari ", the marketable grey mullet
which is the chief produce of the limans, decreases in prime cost from
640 roubles in a 250 hectare liman, to 169 roubles in a 2 000 hectare
liman. I n a liman of 250 hectares, the cost of exploitation is covered
by earnings by only l a times, but in a liman of 2 000 hectares by 42
times. As some of the limans exceed 10 000 hectares in area, there seems
to be scope for profitable working even on a low or very low rate of fish
production per hectare.
B. The state of the industry-progress, stagnation and decline
Big units need big investment, and the provision of capital seems
to be the chief obstacle to the continued prosperity and expansion of
the brackish-water fish farming industry. I n the case of the Singapore
prawn ponds, for example, the capital needed was Malayan dollars
12 840, in addition t o working capital. As Schuster says, these are
large sums in comparison with those needed in other rural industries,
and further, a pond operator needs more ready money for working
expenses than the villager usually possesses.
The recent history of the industry is mainly one of stagnation or
even decline. Cobb (1901) wrote that, in Hawaii, there were at that time
not more than half of the number of ponds in use that there had been
thirty years previously, and Hiatt (1944) repeated that the industry
was in decline in his day. The chief reasons were the decline in population and the conversion of the ponds for land development. Fish
farms which occupy desirable waterside sites in the developed countries
are bound t o attract the interest of land development agencies. Though
the income from a well-managed fishpond may exceed that of agri-
201
The capital costs were recouped in two years. The rate of cropping
was 766 lbiacreiannum.
Plainly, where the rate of cropping is low, as it is in brackish-water
fishponds generally, only large acreages will make a viable industry,
able to amortize invested capital, pay a good rate of interest, and set
aside reserves for contingencies and expansion. The rate of production
of the Italian valli, for example, at, say 100 kgihectare, would not be
enough t o support a small-scale enterprise, but on the existing pond
areas of, say 500 hectares, income becomes 50 000 kg or more of wellpriced fish, which can, moreover, be sold under favourable conditions.
And as with the Javanese ponds, there are extras such as the sale of
wild duck in season, shooting rights, etc.
I n his account of the Russian limans, Ilin (1954) makes the same
point. The larger the acreage of ponds, the lower the prime cost of fish
production. One xentner of " chulari ", the marketable grey mullet
which is the chief produce of the limans, decreases in prime cost from
640 roubles in a 250 hectare liman, to 169 roubles in a 2 000 hectare
liman. I n a liman of 250 hectares, the cost of exploitation is covered
by earnings by only l a times, but in a liman of 2 000 hectares by 42
times. As some of the limans exceed 10 000 hectares in area, there seems
to be scope for profitable working even on a low or very low rate of fish
production per hectare.
B. The state of the industry-progress, stagnation and decline
Big units need big investment, and the provision of capital seems
to be the chief obstacle to the continued prosperity and expansion of
the brackish-water fish farming industry. I n the case of the Singapore
prawn ponds, for example, the capital needed was Malayan dollars
12 840, in addition t o working capital. As Schuster says, these are
large sums in comparison with those needed in other rural industries,
and further, a pond operator needs more ready money for working
expenses than the villager usually possesses.
The recent history of the industry is mainly one of stagnation or
even decline. Cobb (1901) wrote that, in Hawaii, there were at that time
not more than half of the number of ponds in use that there had been
thirty years previously, and Hiatt (1944) repeated that the industry
was in decline in his day. The chief reasons were the decline in population and the conversion of the ponds for land development. Fish
farms which occupy desirable waterside sites in the developed countries
are bound t o attract the interest of land development agencies. Though
the income from a well-managed fishpond may exceed that of agri-