Based on data presented here, eighty-four countries, containing 89 percent of the world's population have reported some production of aquacultural products. While these data are in many ways inadequate, they demonstrate the breadth of global interest in aquaculture as a form of food production. Of these countries, twenty-four (representing 60 percent of the world's population) produce more than 1 kg/capita/year and twelve (30 percent of world population) produce more than 2.5 kg/capita/year. On a regional basis Europe and Asia, produce over 1.5 kg/capita/year while Africa and Latin America produce 0.02 and 0.18 kg/capita/year respectively.
Regional and global aquacultural production data, used in this study are summarized on Table 4.1 (Pillay, 1979; ADCP, 1982; see section 3) as are data relative to the change in food production (FAO 1980 Production Yearbook) and fish harvest from all sources (FAO 1980 Yearbook of Fishery Statistics, Vol.50). (The gathering of the aquacultural information was a major task and the end results are not very satisfactory in terms of the confidence one may place in them. This problem of collecting reliable data points to a major need in rational aquaculture planning, better production information.)
It is clear that aquacultural production is not distributed evenly. This suggests that there is something to be gained by learning about the nature of the factors which influence aquacultural production will provide guidance for predicting aquacultural growth. That is the purpose of this study.
