Assessment of shrimp farmers viewpoint toward potential obstacles in Chabahr City, Iran

Abstract

This paper investigates the attitude of shrimp growing managers toward current problems in 2010. The region is located in Chabahar city of Sistan and Baluchistan province, Iran. The population of this study included 36 to 61 farms. Data was collected through fishery organization, cooperative department and also interviews with decision-making units (DMUs) managers. The validity of the questionnaires was evaluated by experts and faculty members of the University. Cronbach alpha coefficient was used in order to assess the reliability of questionnaire scale, which measured as an acceptable coefficient more than 0.7 in all of the parts. The managers' attitudes were investigated toward financial affairs, human resources, competitiveness, existing infrastructure, laws and government policies. At last, the main obstacles and problems were identified in these farms. Regarding the results about ranking of market and competitiveness, it is better to create domestic market by accompaniment of government, so that it could provide the producers with better conditions. Furthermore, it increases per capita shrimp consumption in country. On the other hand, to maintain and even expand competitive global markets, allocating subsidies for shrimp exports, besides improving road asphalt at non-residential Guatr and reducing the costs of shrimp production are suggested. Bad market conditions and non-optimal allocation of financial resources are drastic obstacles for developing these pools. These problems should be taken care of via low-interest loans and advertisements about shrimp consumption benefits. Moreover, improving manpower productivity is a way to reduce the gap of shrimp productivity of Iran comparing to shrimp exporters in other countries. Therefore, special training courses to boost manpower productivity in Guatr restrict are recommended. Key words: Managers' attitude, Chabahar, production, shrimp.