Most yellow catfish farmers in both provinces had elementary school education. In Guangdong, 12% of farmers had not completed elementary school. A slightly higher percentage (26%) of middle school was reported in Zhejiang province. One farmer (4%) in Zhejiang had a college education.
Aquaculture experience was defined as the number of years that a farmer had been involved in any form of aquaculture production, and was not confined to yellow catfish culture, which was encouraged in the study areas starting in about 2002. Prior to 2002, most farmers in both provinces were involved in carp production. In this study, farmers in Guangdong and Zhejiang averaged 16–18 years’ experience in the industry (Table 2). Interestingly, 30% of respondents in Guangdong had 6–10 years of experience, and might not have had any experience with freshwater aquaculture before they started growing yellow catfish. The highest percentage (32%) of farmers reporting the most experience (21–25 years) was in Zhejiang. For each province, almost 50% of farmers had more than 15 years of experience. Only 6% and 22% of farmers in Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces, respectively, reported having formal aquaculture training.
3.2. Production systems
3.2.1. Farm size, biomass harvested and yellow catfish yield
Mean farm sizes were 0.7 ha and 2.1 ha for Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces, respectively (Table 3). Most farms in Guangdong were small, belonging to category I ( < 1.47 ha), which decreased the mean value of farm size for this province. In contrast, almost 50% of farms in Zhejiang belonged to the 2 upper strata of farm sizes (1.47–3.67 ha and ≥3.67 ha).