The study examines economic efficiency of aquaculture production in Edo State. The data for the
analysis were obtained from the fish farmers through the administration of structured
questionnaire, using multistage sampling technique and leading to the selection of 100
respondents. Data were analyzed, using stochastic frontier production function as in Frontier
Version 4.1, applying the maximum likelihood estimation technique. The result of the analysis
shows that the fish farmers were operating at the positive increasing returns to scale (RTS =
2.055). The study shows that if the amount of fingerlings, hired labour, family labour, quantity of
feeds and annual cost of materials were increased by 100% in aquaculture production, total fish
output in the aquaculture farms will increase by 40.2%, 136.9%, 6.5%, 26.5%, and 7.6% for each
of the increase in the input respectively.. This establishes the fact that these resources were under
utilized in aquaculture production in Edo State. The mean technical efficiency estimated at about
63% is suggesting that the aquaculture farmers were only 63% efficient in the use of the
combination of their inputs. The study concludes that aquaculture production and its efficiency
can be increased in Edo State in Nigeria by increasing the stocking density, increase access to
credit and extension services. If these are done, the contribution of aquaculture fishery to total
fish supply in Nigeria that was about 5% in 1991, and then increased to 12% in 2007, can
increase faster to about 40% in the nearest future.