Abstract:
This study was carried out to assess the current status of the social-economic conditions of the people in the fishing sector in Namasagali Sub County. The study was done assess the distribution of economic benefits from the fisheries, using selected indicators like finding out the income levels, the. impact of the family size and impact of education level on economic development. It used both qualitative and quantitative research design and data was collected from a sample of 50 respondents. The methods of data collection used were observation and interviews which were held with many actors like traders, fishermen and other participants in the fishing sector. The data was cross sectional and was analyzed using descriptive analysis and bivariate analysis.
The study reveals disparities in the benefits -at the regional as well as at the local levels, with more benefits accruing to the upper levels of the fish marketing chain. The disparities are attributed to unequal distribution in production assets such as capital, skills and credit facilities, free-market price determination mechanisms, inadequate access to the market and other useful information; limited investment horizon and opportunities among fishers, inadequate policies to deal with disparities in distribution and insufficient data for distribution analysis to feed into the policy process it reveals that there is a negative relationship between the social economic development and family size and also education was revealed to have a positive impact. in order to streamline distribution, the study proposes, among other things; establishing suitable savings and credit schemes, empowering BMUs to organize fishers for marketing, improving market information flow, improving policies and improving data availability.
Key words: Economic benefits, Disparities, Distribution, Equity
