Fish Farmers in Rural Communities : Results of a Survey in Northwestern Province of Zambia
ALCOM Field Document No.8
| ALCOM | GCP/INT/555/SWE |
| Aquaculture for Local Community Development Programme | GCP/RAF/277/BEL |
| Fish Farmers in Rural Communities : Results of a Survey in Northwestern Province of Zambia |
| TABLE OF CONTENTS |
by
U.N. Wijkstrom, Economist
and
Rolf Larsson, Socio-Economist
Funding Agencies:
SWEDISH INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY
BELGIAN ADMINISTRATION FOR DEVELOPMENT CO-OPERATION
Executing Agency:
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Harare, Zimbabwe, September 1992
This report was prepared during the course of the project identified on the title page. The conclusions and recommendations given in the report are those considered appropriate at the time of its preparation. They may be modified in the light of further knowledge gained at subsequent stages of the project.
The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this document do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the United Nations or the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal or constitutional status of any country, territory or sea area, or concerning the delimination of frontiers.
This paper describes a survey of farmers with fish ponds in Northwestern Province, Zambia, carried out during the second quater of 1988 by ALCOM in co-operation with the Department of Fisheries, Zambia.
Of 1372 farmers with fish ponds in the province, about 200 were interviewed in the course of the survey. Of these, about 130 were either practising or ex-farmers, and 70 were potential farmers.
Taking part in the survey were Mr. Ulf Wijkstrom, Consultant economist, and Mr. Rolf Larsson, socio-economist (Associate Professional Officer), two social science graduates from the University of Zambia (Ms Lilian Chinkumbi and Mr Nelly Mazingaliwa), Mr. B. Chakunguka of the Department of Fisheries, plus local fish scouts and interpreters.
ALCOM is a regional fisheries/aquaculture programme of the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations). Based in Harare, Zimbabwe, it covers all the member-countries of SADCC (Southern African Development Coordination Conference): Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The aim of ALCOM is to assist member countries improve the living standards of rural populations through the practice of aquaculture. Toward this end, pilot activities are conducted in member countries to demonstrate new techniques, technologies or methodologies. Successes achieved, ideas derived, lessons learnt, are applied on a wider scale by member governments.
ALCOM's implementation phase began in 1986 and its first implementation phase in October 1990. It is funded at present by Sweden and Belgium. Japan funds a component on “Women and gender issues”.
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1.1 Purpose of survey
1.2 The North-Western Province
1.2.1 Location, population and agriculture
1.2.2 Fish farming
1.3.1 The survey plan
1.3.2 The first visit
1.3.3 The second visit
1.3.4 The third visit
1.4 Survey coverage
1.5 Questionnaires and their analysis
2. ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS: CURRENT SITUATION AND OUTLOOK FOR SUBSISTENCE FISH FARMING IN THE NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCE
2.1 Production of farmed tilapia
2.1.1 Quantities produced
2.1.2 Production methods
2.1.3 Harvesting and use of tilapia
2.1.4 Problems
2.2 Outlook for tilapia production in ponds
2.2.1 More fish from each pond
2.2.2 Ponds lost
2.2.3 New ponds
3. ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS: DESCRIPTION OF THE SUBSISTENCE FISH FARMER
3.1 The respondents compared to the population of the North-Western Province
3.2 “ICARA” versus “NON-ICARA” farmers
3.3 Conclusions
4. ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS: THE SUCCESSFUL SUBSISTENCE FISH FARMER
4.1 The subsistence fish farmer: The links between success and social and economic characteristics
4.1.1 The tendency to expand
4.1.2 The links to failure
4.1.3 Conclusions
4.2 The subsistence fish farmer: Importance of motives and social norms
4.2.1 Motives
4.2.2 Social Norms
4.2.3 Conclusions
5. ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSIONS: THE SUBSISTENCE FARMERS' ALTERNATIVES TO FISH FARMING
5.1 Alternatives and risks
5.2 Resources use in pond culture of tilapia
5.2.1 Land area
5.2.2 Water
5.2.3 Feed
5.2.4 Fertilizers
5.2.5 Labour
5.2.6 Cash
5.3 Alternatives for resources used in subsistence fish farming
5.4 Allocation of scarce inputs and possible reasons
5.4.1 The potential farmer
5.4.2 Practising farmers: status quo
5.4.3 The practising farmer: more ponds
5.4.4 Conclusions
6.1 Actions relevant in the North-Western Province
6.1.1 More tilapia from each pond
6.1.2 Maintaining ponds in operation
6.1.3 Constructing new ponds
6.2 Actions relevant in all of Zambia
6.2.1 Adaptation of technology
6.2.2 Activities and organization of extension services
6.3 Activities relevant for ALCOM
At the request of the Government of Zambia (GOZ), ALCOM surveyed farmers with fish ponds in the North Western Province during the second quarter of 1988. The objectives of the survey were:
to determine the current status and future prospects of tilapia pond culture.
to examine the characteristics of subsistence fish farmers, and constraints faced by them.
The survey was carried out by staff from the Department of Fisheries and ALCOM, assisted by investigators and interpreters recruited for the survey. About 10% of the Province's known 1372 subsistence fish farmers were interviewed.
The survey indicated that subsistence farmers harvested about 50 tons of tilapia during 1988. This was equivalent to about 6.6 kg per individual in the concerned households. The average physical productivity of the earthen gravity-fed ponds was low; about 4 kg per 100m2 per year. It is estimated that just below 20% of the production was taken out though intermittent harvesting (hook and line), the rest in major harvests, one or two per year. Ponds were seldom if ever drained. Some fish were left behind to reproduce.
The tilapia farmed by subsistence farmers was expected to register production increases of about 5% per year, if existing ponds were kept in workable condition. This increase would come about through a rise in the total pond surface area, as an increase in physical productivity of ponds was not likely in the immediate future.
The average subsistence fish farmer is better educated, more influential, and likely to be economically better off than the average head of a farming household in the Province. A comparison between farmers who have been introduced to tilapia culture through a recent aid project (ICARA) and other farmers, shows that prior to the ICARA project the characteristics described above for a fish farmer were even more pronounced. Although the survey shows that even destitute households can get involved in fish farming, it is evident that the better off the head of the household is, the more likely he is to get involved in fish farming.
To eat tilapia and to sell it are strong motives for subsistence farmers when they decide to culture tilapia. Most farmers do both once they have harvested fish, selling more than half of what they produce in a year. This makes tilapia one of their major sources of cash. As they do not buy inputs, sales revenues make a net contribution to cash income. Most households used to buy and eat fish already before they started culturing tilapia. The extent to which they have reduced purchase of fish because of fish culture is not known.
Attempts to identify the social or economic characteristics of the successful farmer were inconclusive. A few predictable characteristics revealed themselves: youth display more entrepreneurial spirit than old age; similarly, the more educated are more successful than the less educated; and men as heads of households are more entrepreneurial than women.
Social norms are no hindrance to fish culture. The survey did not reveal the extent to which heads of households had abandoned the idea of fish farming altogether because of social norms. However, no such examples came to the knowledge of the survey teams. Those who have abandoned their ponds have generally done so either because the pond does not receive water, or because it does not hold the water it receives.
Most rural households in the North Western Province live close to the subsistence minimum. Their agricultural output is low. They consume a large part of the fairly large number of different crops and livestock that they produce. They lack the capital and sometimes the know how to improve their standards. They cannot with ease increase their output, nor reduce the risks to which crops and animals are exposed (draught, weeds, insects, etc). The survey confirms what might be expected, that under such circumstances farmers will accept fish farming only if it does not increase risks for other established activities.
For the farmer who has not yet dug ponds, the greatest risk seems to lie in the effort involved in pond construction. He has to pay labourers to dig the ponds. For the practising and expanding farmer the major risks relate to alternative uses for fertilizers and labour.
The conclusions of the survey lead to the following recommendations:
In the North Western Province, a fair share of DOF resources should be used to assist farmers ensure that their ponds continue to receive water, and that they hold water. Second, the DOF should focus field efforts on trying to identify procedures and equipment which will enable farmers to spend less time on such tasks as intermittent harvesting, and collecting feed and manure.
The Zambia Department of Fisheries should ensure that fish scouts and other extension staff have a good understanding of the farmers' agricultural situation. Second, the DOF should use one or more of its fish farms to investigate management strategies for ponds that are intermittently harvested and fertilized with what is locally available.
ALCOM should investigate further the practice of intermittent harvesting and support technology developments aimed at improving and spreading this technology. It should also investigate to what extent shortages of labour and fertilizer (feed) inhibit the fish culture activity from the farmer's standpoint.