Analysis of the contribution of artisanal fish farming to household income in Lokoja, Kogi state, by gender

Abstract

The research aims to analyze the importance of artisanal fish farming to household income in Lokoja, Kogi State, and the involvement of gender in this activity. Identifying the activities of men and women in fish farming, describing the socioeconomic features of the respondents, determining the income disparities between genders participating in fish farming, and identifying the constraints to fish farming were the particular goals. Purposive and random sample methods were combined to choose and present the questionnaire to 114 respondents in total. Descriptive statistics, the mean score likert scale, and the T test statistics were used to examine the collected data. The majority of respondents (93.9%) were married, and their average household size was nine people. The responders were 42 years old on average. Findings on men's and women's involvement in fish farming showed that fish harvesting (100%), transportation (61.40%) and supplying (90.40%) were the major fishing farming activities carried out by male fish farmers while the women fish farmers were mostly involved in smoking of fish (100%), drying (98.20%), cleaning of fish (96.50%), sorting (96.50%), cutting (92.10%), sticking (98.20%) and marketing (92.10%) the analysis of Z-test carried on the differences in income of male and female participation in fish farming demonstrates a significant difference (P≤ 0.00) between the income earned by male and female fish growers. Major
problems faced by the respondents were lack of government support ( =2.92), flood ( =2.91) lack of technical knowledge ( =2.87), scarcity of fish seed fingerlings ( =2.77), no access to modern inputs ( 2.71), no access to extension service ( =2.64), poor cooperation among fishermen ( =2.62), insufficient information on fish farming ( =2.58), theft of ( =2.49), lack of storage facilities( =2.45). It is therefore recommended that government should make provision of good storage facilities available in order to address the issue of fish spoiling, which lowers their output.