Assessing the influence of artisanal fishing on income and livelihood of the coastal communities in Tanzania: the case of Mkinga district, Tanga region

Abstract

This study unveiled the influence of artisanal fishing on a coastal community's income and livelihood in the Mkinga District, Tanga region. Particularly, it seeks to: determine fish catch and gross margins across, investigate the influence of fish income on the households total incomes, and factors affecting income earnings in the marketing chain. The study used interviews and focus group discussions on obtaining primary data. Simultaneously, the internet, government documentation units at different levels were the sources of secondary data. It involved a total of 125 randomly selected respondents. Moreover, Gross Margin (GM), Marketing Margin (MG), and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (IBM SPSS Statistics 25) were employed for analysis.Results show the socio-economic status of the respondents was generally poor. The majority of fishers have low education levels (44%), and they depend on fishing for livelihoods. Furthermore, compared to other groups computation of gross margins revealed that artisanal fishers earned the lowest (12.2%) with a gross margin of T.shs 443.6. Despite the lowest gross margin earning than other players, the fish income contributes highly (83.8%) to the total household incomes. Therefore, improvement in the fisheries sector results has a high impact on artisanal fishers' wellbeing. Moreover, factors affecting their income include lack of credit to purchase modern fishing and storage equipment, high cost of fishing gear, poor roads, low bargaining power, inadequate extension services, and lack of market information. Hence, the study recommends the government address observed constraining factors affecting artisanal fishers' incomes to increase their incomes