Socio-economic effects of fishing to the livelihood of people of Majanji sub-county, Busia district :

Abstract

The socio-economic effects of the livelihood of people of Majanji sub-county Busia district were studied. Study objectives included finding out the social economic effects of fishing to the people of Majanji sub-county Busia District; the causes of high spread of fisheries related diseases in the fishing communities; the roles played by women in the fisheries sector and their well-being and finally the initiatives taken by the Government bodies to improve upon the fisheries sector of Majanji sub county. A cross-sectional study was used which involved use of questioners, covering 60 respondents, Data collected was analyzed using SPSS 16. This facilitated the generation of frequency tables, graphs, pie-charts and cross-tabulation for bivariate analysis, The study findings indicated that, the socio-economic effects of fishing included provision of domestic income, food, employment as tangible benefits. The majority of community members bad alternative preferred economic activities to fishing. The study also indicated that reduced catch is increasingly becoming a major challenge which fisheries resource users are encountering. This shows that the stock are reducing due to poor fishing gears accompanied with over fishing and indiscriminate fishing of certain fish species thus deterioration in socioeconomic effects of fishing to the community hence posing a need to address such challenges. Finally, the study also indicated that there is a gender imbalance in fisheries sector which mostly neglects women and fish traders respectively in Majanji fishing community. Study findings also indicate that majority of respondents have knowledge on conservation methods and are willing to adopt them. Conclusively, it's clear the fisheries resources have significant effects to the livelihood of people through provision of food, income and employment opportunities. However, the increasing demand for the resource has threatened fish stocks with extinction due to over exploitation. The researcher therefore recommends that. for an increase in socio-economic effects of fisheries resources, value additional. activities should be encouraged for example processing fish fat for generation of fish oils which is good for human health and the same time activities, like (sorting, washing fish, icing of fish, drying, removing the fish gut) among others all provide more employment opportunities there by increasing people’s income hence improve livelihood of the community.