Abstract
This study ponders on the significance of gender, marital status, landholding size and age of members on capacity of farmer organisations in promoting fish farming at the local level. Purposive sampling method was employed to select five fish farmer organizations. One farmer organisation was selected in Dowa district while four farmer organisations were selected in Mchinji district. All members of the farmer organizations were selected for the study. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. Data collection comprised focus group discussions (FGDs), key informant interviews and face to face interviews. Data were analysed using content analysis, critical discourse analysis and descriptive statistics. Results show that gender, marital status, landholding size and age of members have a significant (p < 0.05) influence on capacity of farmer organisations to promote fish farming. The study also showed that although institutional theory and social capital theory do not categorically or explicitly point to socioeconomic characteristics of the members as being central in enhancing capacity of the farmer organisations, this study has shown that gender, marital status, landholding size and age of members are critical for the successful performance of fish farmer organisations. It is therefore recommended that these socioeconomic factors be considered for successful establishment and development of vibrant and robust farmer organisations. It is further recommended that a follow-up study with a larger sample and replicated in more local communities should be carried out in order to provide more evidence on the influence of these socioeconomic factors on performance and capacity of fish farmer organisations.
Highlights
Despite the important contribution of fisheries resources to peoples’ livelihoods in Malawi, fish catches from water bodies like lakes and rivers have declined [1]
The sampling frame comprised five fish farmer organizations which operated under Community Action Research Programme (CARP) Fish Project
The study has revealed that socioeconomic characteristics namely gender, marital status, landholding size and age of members have an important bearing of capacity of the farmer organisations as they influence participation of the members or farmers in the farmer organisations
Summary
Despite the important contribution of fisheries resources to peoples’ livelihoods in Malawi, fish catches from water bodies like lakes and rivers have declined [1]. The decline is attributed to a number of factors including human population growth which grows at a rate of 2% per annum, over fishing, use of improper gear and catchment degradation which are putting serious pressures on fishery resources [4]. Considering the decline in the fisheries resources, fish farming or aquaculture is seen as one of the alternative strategies to sustain fish production and supply in Malawi. In Malawi, within the fisheries sector, fish farming has been found to hold the potential for improving productivity of small scale famers and is a major contributor
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