The demand for fishery commodities is increasing day by day. The community to increase the need for animal protein, especially those produced from fishery products, is always hampered by the availability of existing fish stocks and also relatively high prices. In addition, Indonesia also has a target to reduce the prevalence of stunting by 14% in 2024. In mid-2023, the prevalence of stunting in Indonesia was 21.6% (www.dpr.go.id).
To achieve the target of efforts to reduce the prevalence of stunting, it is necessary to be supported by the availability of food sources that have high nutritional value. The availability of food sources can be obtained from fish.
In addition to being produced from fishing, either at sea or in public waters (rivers, lakes, reservoirs), fishery products are also produced from fish farming activities. Fish farming activities that are currently commonly carried out by fish farmers are tilapia fish farming. According to fisheries statistics, the volume of tilapia fish production ranks highest when compared to other types of fish as can be seen in the table below.
Data on Production Volume of Aquaculture for Enlargement per Main Commodity (Tons)
Source: statistik.kkp.go.id
Increasing the development of tilapia fish farming in order to increase production or maintain the amount of production results often faces several weaknesses. These weaknesses can arise from both internal and external sources. The author describes from various information, literature and from the results of studies that the weaknesses in the development of tilapia fish farming are:
1. Limited capital.
Capital is an important thing in every business because it is used for various purposes. Capital can be obtained from internal capital and external capital. Internal capital is capital that comes from the business owner himself while external capital is capital obtained from loans or debts.
2. Limited number of quality seeds.
Quality fish seeds that have certificates are limited in number so that fish farmers find it difficult to obtain them.
3. High price of fish feed.
High feed prices will affect the level of ability of fish farmers to meet the needs of fish for feed, if the price of feed is high then the costs incurred will be large, this will also affect the income level of fish farmers.
4. Information and promotion are not optimal.
Generally, information and promotion are still not mastered by fish farmers. The number of farmers or fish farmers is still dominated by the elderly who are generally not literate in information and communication technology.
The weaknesses above can be anticipated with several appropriate policy steps, including reducing business production costs and increasing production efficiency.