Assessing the impact of artisanal fishing on utilization of the coastal communities in Tanzania the case of Mkinga district, Tanga region

This study intended to come up with an understanding of the impact of artisanal fishing on coastal communities’ incomes in Mkinga District, Tanga region. Four objectives were used: to assess the socio-economic characteristics of the artisanal fishers; determine fish catch and gross margins across the marketing chain; investigate the contribution of fish income to the households total incomes and; to investigate factors affecting artisanal fishers income earnings in the marketing chain. Both secondary and primary data were collected. Secondary data were collected through internet search, government documentation units at different levels and universities’ libraries. Primary data were obtained through administering a questionnaire to artisanal fishers and other players in the marketing chain while a checklist was used to collect data from focus group discussions and key informant interviews. There was also physical observation of the situation in the field. The study involved a total of 125 fishermen who were selected randomly for interview. Gross Margin (GM) and Marketing Margin (MG) were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Results shows the socio-economic status by the respondents were generally poor. A high proportion of the fishers depend on fishing for livelihoods, they had low level of education where majority (44%) had primary education, and 30% did not attend any formal education while 16.8% had Quranic education. Only, 8.8% had secondary education and no one out of the 125 respondents attended any tertiary education. The poor socio-economic profile affects the performance of the artisanal fishers and their income earning. A computation of gross margins revealed that artisanal fishers earned the lowest (12.2%) followed by middlemen (16.9%), retail processors (27.2%), wholesalers (25%) and un-processing retailers (18.6%) with gross margin of T.shs 443.6, 612.2, 907.2, 675 and 987 respectively. Despite, the artisanal fishers earned lowest gross margin than other players the fish income contribute highly (83.8%) to the total household incomes suggesting that an improvement of fish sector could lead to high impact on artisanal fishers’ wellbeing. Factors affecting artisanal fishers incomes were reported to be: lack of credit to purchase modern fishing and storage equipment’s, high cost of fishing gears, poor roads, low bargaining power, inadequate extension services and lack of market information. The study recommended that in order to enhance artisanal fisher’s incomes the government in collaboration with other stakeholders should address the observed constraining factors affecting artisanal fishers’ incomes.