MOBILE PHONE TECHNOLOGY FOR ENHANCING SMALL-SCALE FISHING IN TANZANIA. A CASE OF NYASA DISTRICT

Abstract

 Information and communications technology is a catalyst to the development of socio-economic sectors in Tanzania including the fishing sector. However, despite the contribution made by mobile phone technologies as one of the ICT modern gears in the development of fishing industry, most small-scale fishers are poor, and their working environment is of great risks due to various challenges. This being the case, the current study investigated the extent to which smallscale fishermen use mobile phone technology for enhancing safety and increase of fishery production through the access to reliable market information. The study employed interviews, focus group discussion, documents review, and observation in collecting data. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to obtain 70 respondents from Nyasa District Council which is found in Ruvuma Region, Tanzania. Content analysis technique was employed in data analysis. The findings indicate that although mobile phone technology is used by small-scale fishermen such as marketing of fishery products and sharing information about where to get big cashes, to a great extent, mobile phone technologies do not help them to improve safeties due to various challenges such as poor cell phone network, high costs of purchasing airtime and low quality of mobile handset which in turn hindering an effective communication. It was further observed that drowning, poor knowledge on weather forecast, poor fishing equipment, sexual transmitted diseases, stressful life, and family separation are key challenges that affect the lives of small-scale fishing practitioners in Lake Nyasa. This study contributes knowledge to the already existing literature on the role of mobile phone technology in the development of small-scale fishing sector in Tanzania and it lays down basis for development mobile virtual platform for improving safety and increase fishing productivity of the target users